


I'll Remember

by heartinvacancy



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Biker Becky, Charlynch friendship, Days Gone AU, F/F, Scientist Alexa, dont let the first chapters fool you, it has a happy ending you guys, literal ride or die friendship, mention of selfharm, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2020-05-20 13:44:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 70,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19377907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartinvacancy/pseuds/heartinvacancy
Summary: Set in a post-apocalyptic Oregon two years after a global pandemic, this AU follows the story of Becky Lynch, a former member of a biker gang. After discovering that there is a chance her wife Alexa is still alive, Becky embarks on a quest to reunite with her.Days Gone AU.





	1. Drifters On The Mountain

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody! Im back with another Belexa fic, this time a Multi-chapter one, this is based on the video game Days Gone, so if you haven't played it or are in the middle of playing it be aware there will be spoilers. The overall story does follow the events of the game but I do change a few things to make it fit a bit more to this story.
> 
> Please give it a chance!

**Three years ago...**

 

It was chaos all around the center of the town. Farewell Bend was small quaint city once full of life in the middle of Oregon, and it was now filled with chaos and panic. Sirens are going off all round them, stores are being trashed by people looking for supplies, others where running away, but all have the same goal. Save themselves from the newly infected.

As a molotov gets thrown towards a store window, two people are hiding and waiting behind a dumpster for the counterpart comeback.

A whimper comes out from the mouth of a blonde girl, leaning against the dumpster holding her right side, a pair of hands on top of hers helping put pressure on an open wound.

“I know it hurts, babe. Im sorry.” Her redhead counterpart whispers, leaning forward to leave a kiss on the blonde’s forehead. She turns to look for her friend, she’s relieved to see her walking back to them cautiously. 

“She’s burning up.” Says the redhead turning to look at her friend. “I think the knife might’ve punctured an organ or somethin’.”

“Hey Lexi, how you doing?” Another blonde by the name of Charlotte, asked while kneeling down next to the injured girl. 

“It was so stupid… it was this little kid… a Goddamn kid.” Alexa says groaning.

“A little kid with a Goddamn knife, Lexi.” 

“Not the time to be a smartass, Becks.” Says Charlotte, taking one of the blonde’s arms and putting it around her own shoulder. “Alright, time to move.” She continues, both Becky and her helping the injured woman to her feet. “We gotta get to the roof, flag down one of the choppers.” 

The trio do their best to move forward at a fast pace while the chaos gets stronger around them. 

Eventually they make it to the roof, where a chopper is already picking survivors up.

“Help, we need your help.” Said Becky, carrying the blonde, bridal style.

“What’s wrong with her?” Said the guy helping the people up the chopper. He was wearing a protective suit, mask included and he was clearly hesitant to get closer to them.

“She’s not… whatever the hell  it’s goin’ on down there. She was stabbed.” Says Becky.

“I can’t take anyone else.” Says the man regrettably.

Becky stares at the guy in disbelief. “Ok, Listen…” She glances down to the nametag on the man’s uniform. “Zayn, Samuel Zayn. If she doesn’t go to a hospital, she’s going to die.” She says frustrated.

“There are no more hospitals.” Zayn says seriously. It was clear whatever was going on caught them by surprise. Caught everyone by surprise.

“Ok, fine. But there must be doctors, a mash unit, somethin’!” She says desperately.

“Listen, I’m just an undergrad okay? I wasn’t even meant to be here.” He goes on, backing away from Becky and towards the chopper. 

Seeing this the redhead, carefully leaves the blonde on the ground before getting back up and taking a gun from the back of her pants and pointing it towards Zayn. 

“I really don’t want to do this Sami, but she’s everything I have and you really need to be more cooperative.” She says, the desperation of needing to get help could be heard in her voice.

Seeing the redhead get her gun out, Charlotte who was leaning against the roof door, the cut in her leg making it harder for her to stand up, starts limping closer to them, looking at the guy and taking out her own gun.

“Ok, ok!” Says the man scared. “But we are overweight so I only got room for two. Two” 

Becky looks at the guy in disbelief, She then looks at Charlotte who’s leaning most of her wait on her right leg, and sighs. Putting down her gun, her carefully picks up the blonde and walks to the helicopter, gently placing her on a bench, her back against the chopper’s wall.  

“It’s ok sweetheart. You are gonna be alright.” Becky whispers, gently brushing away some of the blonde’s hair from her forehead.  She stands up so she could go get Charlotte but the blonde keeps a stronghold on her hand. “It’s ok Lexi, I’ll be right back.”  

“There’s only room for two, Becks.” Says Charlotte, seriously.

“But...your leg…”  Says the redhead, glancing down to the blonde’s leg. 

“It’s fine, I’ve been through worse shit, you know this.” Says the blonde. “So it’s ok, go with her.”  She continues nodding her head towards the chopper.

Becky closes her eyes, and nods to herself as she walks back to Zayn. 

“Where are you going?” She asks him.

“Nero refugee camp, west of Three Finger Jack.” He responds while getting everybody ready for take off.

“No.” Alexa manages to say.

“Charlie will never make it without me.” She says pointing towards the blonde. She stares at Alexa for a few seconds before taking off the ring hanging from her neck and placing it in Alexa’s own finger “You hold on to this, alright.” 

“Becky, no.” The blonde repeats.

“I want it back.” Becky continues, her free hand gently touching the blonde’s cheek, she leans forward to give her a lingering kiss, before walking away from the chopper, she turns towards the Zayn and nods giving him the ok to leave. 

The man hesitates for a second before signaling the pilot and taking off, all the redhead and her friend could see was the chopper flying away leaving them in the midst of chaos.

\------------------------------

**Present**

 

“Do you see him?” Asked Becky. 

“No, I lost sight of him a while back.” The blonde responded getting off her bike and walking closer towards the cemetery doors.  Looking to find a way inside while the redhead looked around for any clues.

The both of them have been chasing a man for a bounty, the man had stolen some medicine and other supplies from a nearby camp and they have been trailing him from a while.

“Fucking Ziggler” Says the redhead.

“You think he finally got tired of dealing with Owens?” Asks the blonde turning to look at the redhead.

“Nah, Ziggler was already stealin’ from Owens, he’s been doing so for months.”  She shrugged. “Guess he finally got caught.”

“Well I..” 

“Shit!” They get interrupted by a gunshots, one of the bullets grazing Becky’s arm, the both of them immediately take cover behind their bikes. 

“Fucking Ziggler!” Charlotte yells, taking out her gun and shooting at the guy, Becky following up and doing the same. After a few second Ziggles runs out of bullets, so he throws his gun away and start running away through the forest, but no before the redhead managed to shot at him making him slow down.

Both women start following after him until eventually finding him on his knees by one of the trails next to a river.

“Well, well, Dolphie…” Says Becky putting down her gun and walking towards him. “Bleeding out, that’s a hell of a way to go” 

“It’s slow.” Charlotte says as she follows through putting her shotgun down, and searches Ziggler for the meds or anything that would give a clue as to where he stashed them.  “Where’s the stash Ziggler?” she continues as she pushes her gun to the man’s head.

The man only looks at the women before huffing and looking away, holding his hand against his wound tighter. 

“Now come on Dolphie…” Becky says as she crouches in front of him. “You are a dead man anyways. You tell us where it is and we promise to make it quicker.” As if on queue a growl is heard from a distance, making Becky smirk. “They can smell blood you know? How do you suppose that feels like? Being torn apart, eaten alive?” She shrugs. 

“Ugh, fine!” He says loudly. “It’s at the cemetery, the old one, look for the Angel.” He says as the growls started getting louder. “Just do it please, don’t leave me here for them!” 

At this Becky pulls out her gun and hesitates for a second. Even after three years of doing this, she still not used to killing someone in cold blood. But is either this or die she supposes. Taking a deep breath she raises her gun and pulls the trigger, Ziggles falls down to the ground, his cap falling from his head.  Charlotte who had turned away looks back at the body by her feet and reaches down to take the cap and give it to Becky. 

“Here, Owens will need something for the bounty.”

\------------------------------------------------------

“God damn it! Fucking Ziggler!” Becky says angrily, kicking her bike. 

“What?” The blonde asks from her bike.

“He shot the damn fuel pump. Son of a bitch.” 

“Ok, let’s get back to camp tonight, and we’ll go look for one in the morning cool?” Charlotte asks calmly, Becky looks around, trying to come up with ideas, when a sign by the side of the road caughts her eye. 

“Oooor we could go hunting tonight?” She ask, pointing at the sign, smirking.

“Crazy Willis, it was where the auto shop I worked on used to be, its next that tee-pee motel a few miles back, it’s not far from here, let’s go right now, look for a new pump, get some more freaker bounties and maybe get some food, how’s that sound?”

“Yeah, okay. Let just hope rippers haven't made a camp out of it.” The blonde says as Becky gets on her bike. 

“Aaand its full of freakers.” The blonde says a while later after they got to their destination, a small motel next to a gas station and auto shop.

Freakers aka the infected, humans and animals who fell victim to a viral infection, side effects include, being super strong, super agile, cannibalism, aggressiveness and more. How you can tell they are freakers? well they growl, grunt and act like animals, they are hairless, body is full of sores and they basically want to eat you on sight.

 “Becks, we can still find the pump somewhere else you know?”  She turns to look at Becky who was already getting off the bike and searching the bike’s saddle bags for ammo. “But something tells me you were hoping for this.” 

“What? me? Noooo.” Becky says, loading her gun. “Look just drive through makin’ as much noise as you can to attract as many of ‘em as you can, I’ll go in, look for the pump and see you in a few minutes by the bridge, cool?”

“It’s that time of the year again isn’t it?” Charlotte asks.

“What time?”

“The time where you go back to the cemetery, to talk to her. You only go on killing sprees when you are thinking about that.” Charlotte looks at Becky. “Becks, you know it’s not your fault she’s gone.”  She says softly. 

“Drop it, Charlie.” Becky says after a few second of silence.

“If you’d gone up on that chopper with Alexa, all that would be different is you’d be dead too.”  She gets off her bike and walks towards the redhead. “The camp was overrun, Becks, you had no control over that.” she continues placing her hand on the redhead’s shoulder.

“Look, just drop it.” She shrugs off the blonde’s hand and heads towards the motel. “By the bridge, Charlie!” She yells.

The blonde sighs and shakes her head at her best friend. And takes off, one hand on her bike, the other one shooting a couple of rounds from her side gun drawing the freakers in. 

She knows these past couple of years hadn’t been easy for her friend. The world went to shit and she lost her wife, she knows the reason Becky stayed that night was to help her. And although she knows this, she also knows Becky blames no one else but herself for Alexa’s death. And God knows the blonde has been doing everything she can to convince the redhead it wasn't. Becky blaming herself only caused her to be reckless, and it only gets worse during this time of year.

As Becky crouches down to hide behind a concrete barricade she looks at the nest in front of her, branches, leaves and mud coming out of a small window. That’s the last nest between her and her fuel pump, she already destroyed another three, so if she gets rid of this last one she gets into the auto shop, the motel and gas station are free of the freakers and then she and Charlotte can go back for her bike and back to their camp.

She gets a molotov from her bag, and takes out her lighter and as she’s about to light it up she whispers. “Please don’t be a horde, please don’t be a horde.”  she takes a deep breath and throws it at the nest, it immediately catches on fire and five or six freakers come out of it looking for a meal, She takes her spiked bat and starts hitting them one by one, taking her time to put some distance between each kill to avoid getting hurt. Her anger and grief clearly coming out with each hit.  Blood splashing on her, her bat dripping with it along with freaker guts. 

As one of them manages to get a hold of her, she fights it off by headbutting them and taking out her gun to shoot at them. After all is said and done, she’s out of breath, so she crouches down for a second, doing a poor job of cleaning out some of the blood from her face with the back of her hand. 

“North, we should go North.” She gets out. “Charlie’s right, I need some time away from here, too many memories.” She says between breaths, after taking a breather she continues on with her mission. 

“Alright, fuel pump.” She mumbled as she goes into the garage by jumping through a broken window. “Gotta be around here somewhere.” 

“Hey Charlie, you there?” Becky asks through her radio. She’s walking around carefully with her bat drawn out. If she remembers correctly the pump should be on the storage room at the back.

_ “Im here, you found it?” _

“I’m on it, but I wanted to ask, what do you call a laughin’ motorcycle?” The redhead ask, a grin on her face.

_ “I’m gonna regret this, but what?”   _ The blonde was clearly rolling her eyes, but at the same time she’s glad the goofy side of her friend is still there, even after everything.

“A Yamahahaha.” Becky said, laughing at her own joke. “Bingo” she said to herself finding the fuel pump.

_ “Becks, what...ah fuck!”  _

“Charlie? what’s going on?!” Asked Becky, leaving the pump safely hidden in a bush outside the shop and running towards the meeting point.

_ “Rippers!”  _ Charlotte managed to say, the sound of struggle coming through the radio. 

 “Rippers?... Charlie… Charlotte!” Becky ran as fast as she could to the bridge, her gun out and ready to shoot. “I’m on my way, hold on!” 

Goddamn rippers, members of the RIP cult,  they are an insane group of people who worship the freakers. They perfectly healthy.. _ ish _ humans, but for some insane reason, want to be just like the freakers, they think this was all part of some big plan, believing that the infection is some sort of gift and all vestiges of civilization are blasphemous, thus torture and kill other humans who refuse to join them. How do you recognize a Ripper? Simply they act like freakers, they shave their heads, harm themselves in some sort of ritual manner, and yes, they want to kill you on sight.

“This tats are all symbols of the lost.” One of the ripper says, holding a blow torch on their hand. 

“We will show you the path!” Another one says, this one holding Charlotte by one of her arms,  while another holds her by the other one, pulling her sleeve up to her elbow to show her horsewoman tattoo, the biker group she used to be in with Becky. 

Agonizing scream come out of the blonde’s mouth as the ripper gets turns on the blow torch and proceeds to burn off Charlotte’s tattoo on her forearm, they smell of burning flesh filling their nostrils, the blonde trying her mightiest to get free when suddenly the ripper with the torch get their head blown off, the other two releasing Charlotte from their hold causing the blonde to fall to the ground holding her arm. 

As the redhead finished them all with a gunshot to the head, Charlotte sits on the ground in pain.  

“Shit, Charlie…” Becky says, shocked at the state of her friends arm.

“I’m going to kill them all.” Says the blonde between grunts of pain. 

“I’ll be right behind you queenie, but we need to move, gunshots attracted plenty of freakers, let me help you up.” The redhead says already taking her friends arm to help her.

“No, I got this, don’t need help” She says between her teeth.

“Sure you don’t but, I’m nothing if not a gentlewoman.” Becky responds already pulling her friend up. 

“I got the pump. Let’s go.”


	2. Earning Our Keep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here I am with another chapter. So this chapter is sorta of an introduction to this world, what they do to survive and stuff like that. If you have any questions about this universe feel free to ask!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!

“My arm.” The blonde says in disbelief.

“Don’t look at it.” Said Becky, seriously as they arrived to their camp. An old watchtower at the top of one of the mountains.

“My Goddamn arm.” She repeats in shock.

“I said don’t look at it.”

“Well it hurts, I can’t ignore that.”

“Sure you can. “

“Becks.”

“Oh don’t give me that _blistering_ look.”

“Rebecca!”

“Ok, ok, sorry lass.” She says chuckling. “Look just get reacquainted with your bunk, while I go for my bike and maybe to one of those Nero checkpoints to look for bandages or somethin’ for your arm.”

“Ugh.” Charlotte exclaims, already laying down face up on her bunk, covering her face with her good arm, the other one, laying limp by the side of bed to avoid having it touch or rub against something. “Wait. You are leaving my bike there to get yours?”

“What? No you blonde boulder! I’m going on foot, I’ll retrieve my bike, get bandages and maybe get some food alright? I’ll be back soon.” She said, taking her backpack, along with her gun, knife and spiked bat.

“I do have one _burning_ question though…”

“Oh my God, Becky just leave already!”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

“My bike’s gone. How..” Says Becky to herself, looking around, hoping she might’ve mistaken the location where she left it at. But the Crazy Willis sign at the side of the road and the gasoline splash in the middle of the street tells her that she is, in fact, in the right place.

She looks at something or rather someone from the corner of her eye hiding, “Hey! I know you, you are from Owens camp!” She yells walking towards the man hiding, only to have him run away from her.”

“Where’s my bike you dope?!” She says already running behind the guy.

“I know nothin’, you gotta ask Owens!”

“Shit, fucking Owens.” Becky mumbles still following the guy, she’s pretty sure where he’s going considering his comments.

“Jesus, I need to work out.” She mumbles after having run up a hill to reach the camp, the old hiking trail is lit up by torches and the camp is surrounded by wood and scrap metal barriers, a makeshift gate made of the same material, a the top of the gate a faded signed with the word “Owens Encampment.” scribbled out with spray paint. If you looked closely you could read the old faded sign, ‘Peaceful Lake’.

**Past**

Whoever came up with the saying, ‘couples that workout together, stay together’, was crazy, Becky wanted to have some words with them. Alexa for some reason liked to run in the mornings, way to early in the mornings and apparently moving to the mountains only made her get up even earlier. So here she is following the blonde girl through a crazy circuit around O’Leary Mountain.

The plus side was getting to see Alexa wearing a sports bra and very fitting leggins. Her eyes trail along the girl’s perfect body, and damn those leggins look really good. The aforementioned girl already aware of where the redhead’s eyes are turns around smiling smugly.

“See something you like, Becks?” Alexa asks, biting her lip slightly.

“Somethin’ I love, actually,” Becky quips, pulling the girl closer and giving her a kiss.

“Oh, baby. Your charm won’t get you out of finishing. Come on we are almost there. Just one more hill and we’ll reach the lake.” Alexa says.

Becky nods and takes a deep breath. “Worth a shot,” She says before running a head in front of the blonde, eager to get the work out done. The sooner they get to the lake, the sooner they can sit down and hopefully make out. God Alexa has turned her into a teenager again.

Alexa shakes her head, biting her lip as she watches Becky run a head. This time she’s the one enjoying the tight fitting of the redhead’s leggins.

“Jesus, you’re sexy,” Alexa mumbles as the redhead laughs in front of her.

“Who’s trying to distract who, now?”

“Yeah, not sorry. My girlfriend is hot and the fact, that you are wearing a tank top that shows off your biceps and tats, is just wow. So lucky,” The blonde says as she catches up to Becky, the lake is a few feet in front of them, Alexa’s eyes and hands trail down the redhead’s arm, smiling as her eyes settle into the girl’s newest tattoo, a very simple black and white lavender flower, a callback to their first date.

“You like it?” Becky asks.

“Love it, actually,” Alexa mumbles, causing the both of them to smile widely.

**Present**

Approaching the gate, Becky raises her hands as one of the guards points a light on her.

“Lynch is that you?” The guard ask.

Becky rolled her eyes, “Yes, it’s me you dope, some son a bitch stole my bike.”

“Well I know nothing about that, you better talk to Killings about that.” He says, gesturing to another guard to open the gate.

“Fucking Killings.” She mumbles to herself, shaking her head. “Hey, R-Truth my man!, how are ya’?” She walks closer to the Mechanic Post, there wasn’t much to it as it was a makeshift post, there was a counter that was clearly taken from some sort of restaurant, the made up shelves were filled with oil jugs, scrap metal, wrenches, old bike parts and the sort,

“Becky? I haven’t seen you around lately. Or maybe I haven’t noticed. Been working hard you know,” He said, a tall man with short dreadlocks shirtless except for a light mechanic jacket, grease splotches in it, and indicative of the mans current line of work. “Keeping my nose down, working hard. Keeps me fed.”

“Yeah, I bet.” She chuckles. “Listen, Ron, I’m looking for a bike.” She says walking closer to one that has been clearly scrapped, pretty much only the frame remains of it.

“Oh no, you don’t want that one.” He says.

“Why not?” She says, trying to remain calm.

“Just came off the truck, some fool left it by the side of road. Rode it pretty hard too.” He answers. “Clearly they didn’t know anything about bikes, so we parted it out, got some credits for the camp, damn thing didn’t have a fuel pump we could’ve used that.”

“Oh a fuel pump?” She asks humorlessly. “You mean like this one.” She pulls out the pump from her bag and shows it to him.

“Oh shit.” He started backing away from the redhead. “So you see when I said fool I meant… I meant…”

“You meant what?”

“I mean the fools that brought it didn’t tie it down properly and like that type of rattling can cause a lot of damage you know.” He continues to try and explain himself.

“Ron I…”

“Lynch! A word.” They get interrupted by Kevin Owens, survivor, leader and founder of Owens Camp, A conspiracy theorist with some weird intense hatred for the American government. Although he is dead set in thinking the government had everything to do with the outbreak and those who think otherwise are probably stupid, he does believe in individual freedom. At the end of the day its not his place to tell people how live or what to think. Plus deep down… like really deep down, he does care for the well being of the camp, Plus he’s one of the main job provider for Becky and Charlotte as of late.

“I heard you’ve seen Ziggler running around.” He said. They both walked towards the top of a hill in the camp, with makeshift stairs, ramps and balconies where his people would sleep or pass the time. His ‘quarters’ being at the top of the camp with a ‘balcony’ overseeing the camp.

“Ziggler, who’s that?” Becky goes to lean forward on the balcony and looks down at the small encampment. “Is that the scottish dude?”

“Don’t play dumb, Becky.” Owens comes up next to Becky. “His stash, bring it to me. To me, Becky.” he repeats seriously. “You help us and we help you.” He finishes, opening his arms in a welcoming gesture.

Becky takes a few second to think it over. “The bike. The one you men stole. The one your men parted out.”

“Salvaged, Becks, salvaged.” He said calmly.

“Whatever you say.” Becky rolled her eyes and started walking away from Owens.

“Since you are here…”

Becky sighs, bowing her head to the ground and turns around. “What do you need?”

\---------------------

Becky took some time to get a drink and rest, she was sitting down at the edge of the lake, a cup of some really bad instant coffee on her hand and her mind already thinking of the route they’ll take to go North,first thing of the list was fixing Charlotte’s arm, it was badly burned and it would most likely get infected considering the amount of time its been since it happened, specially since they had no bandages or medicines of any kind. But before she could continue with her musings she gets interrupted.

“Becky! I just want to say I’m so sorry about your bike, I… I swear I didn’t know…”

At hearing this Becky stands up and looks at R-Truth. “Killings do you know how much work I put on that bike? It was a drifter bike.”

“I know! Im sorry, b.. but I put together a new one.” He said pointing to where his post was, as they walked closer Becky could only scuff.

“Pfft… you call that piece shit a bike?” She asked.

“I..I’ll keep an eye out for parts, I promise.” He said, still apologetic.

“Right. And what I about the custom gas tank I had? You know the one given to me by my dead wife?” She asked angrily.

“I...I’m sorry, Becks.”

“Just get the parts, Killings.” She said walking away from him and taking the basic bike, making sure it at least was working properly. “Guess going North isn’t happenin’. At least not with this shitty bike,” She shook her head and took off.

\------------------------------------

“Hey, Charlie, you there?” She called out through her radio.

_“Becks, hey. You got your bike?”_

“Not exactly, Its kinda of a long story,” Becky slowed down as she got closer to the Nero checkpoint, she got off the bike and took a look at her surroundings scouting the area for freakers as they are more prone to come out of their nests at night.”I just got to the Nero checkpoint, I’ll look for some sterile bandages, ointment or somethin’ for your arm.”

_“Ok, well I’m going out, make sure no one’s hiding or coming for our stuff.”_

“What? Charlotte no.” She stopped mid walk and grabbed her radio from her backpack strap. “Those are third degree burns you need to stay put and get some rest alright.”

“Charlie?”

_“Fine, I guess… I guess I could use um something for the pain.”_

Alright back to business. “Get bandages, get rid of the drifter camp Owens mentioned, get the bountie for that, get food and then back to the watchtower.” Becky went through her checklist mentally. “I got this. I’m the man.”

\--------------------------------------

“Hey Charlie, I got bandages for your arm.” The redhead left her backpack and weapons by the side of the door and took only the bandages to give them to Charlotte.

“Charlie…” She asks again after no response. “Charlotte.” She looks up to see the blonde laying on her side unresponsive.

“Shit, Charlie!” She runs towards the bed and shakes the blonde, starling her.

The latter sits up in a panic taking her gun from below her pillow and pointing it towards her friend.

“Whoa!”

“Shit! Becky you scared me.” The blonde said, lowering her gun and breathing deeply.

“Yeah no shit!” Becky said. “Lemme see your arm.” she goes to take a look before Charlotte pulls it away.

“No need I got it.”

“C’mon just lemme take a look.”

“I SAID I GOT IT!” The blonde yelled causing the redhead to let go of her arm and bandages,

“Alright! Fuck.” Becky shook her head and took a few steps back, fully intending of leaving the room to give space to the blonde.

“Becks wait! Just… I’m sorry. I’ll be better I promise” The blonde sighed.

“Sure, Charlie” The redhead responds quietly.

“Thank you, you know I love you.”

“Terrible decision.”

“Oh shut up! I’m trying to be nice.”

“Whatever you dope, I love ya too.”


	3. I'll Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day! How do you like that?! 
> 
> Thanks for Reading!

“If you had any bullets left, I wouldn’t be breathing now would I?” The redhead asked, she was being held at gunpoint by the one drifter she didn’t kill. She was doing the usual run, go to a few camps see what jobs they had available and as per usual Owens, had a drifter camp messing with his supply runs and hurting their people, so the job was simply go into the camp and find a way to get rid of it, either talk to them or go through the violent way. Usually it was the latter as they tend to shoot on sight, but she’s kinda used to being shot at so that’s that.

“I don’t kill unarmed people unless I have a choice.” She continued, her own gun pointed towards the drifter. “So, I’ll ask, do I have a choice?” 

“Just let me go ok. I won’t get in your way.” The drifter pleaded to which Becky responded by nodding with her head, letting them go.

“Hey Charlie, you there?” Becky asked.

_ “Hey Becks, you done with that bounty?” _

“Yeah, I might’ve left one of them go though.”  She said going up an old radio tower, usually drifter camps had good stuff hidden up there. Stolen stuff that is, but since you can never really know who they are from, the whole finders keepers rule applied. “She was out of bullets.”

Charlotte chuckled. _ “You know, one of these days that rule of yours is gonna get you killed.” _

“Yeah well, somethin’s outta to do it right?” Finally reaching the top she found some ammo, and a few other supplies. “Whew! what a climb.” she said to herself.  “Alright, Charlie, let’s see if you are right.” She says while looking through binoculars to the surrounding area, their camp was a few miles from her current location and the blonde mentioned having heard something a couple of days ago.

“Aha!, you were right queenie, there is some smoke near the camp.”

_ “I knew I heard something, where are they? I’m going to head up there.” _

_ “ _ No, you are not young lady.” The redhead says as she start climbing down from the radio tower. “You arm’s gotta heal so we can ride the hell out of here.”

_ “I going a little stir crazy here, Becks. I need something to do.” _

“Look just stay alert, in case someone gets close alright?” She said finally reaching the ground and walking to her bike. “By the looks of it, might be an ambush camp, I’ll take care of it. Straight Fire out.”

\-----------------------

“Hey Owens.” Becky calls out through her radio, she’s hidden in some bushes scouting the are, counting how many people are in the ambush camp. Her crossbow loaded up to do some stealth killing. “It’s done, your radio tower is drifter free and free for you to transmit your very weird liberal radio show.” 

_ “There is nothing wrong about expressing yourself freely.” _

_ “ _ Yeah, try telling that to the bunch of minorities the world shat on before it went to shit.” She successfully takes 2 out of the five squaters with her crossbow, the next one is just a few steps away from her, so she makes her way quietly and places her arm around his neck, her other hand on mouth to keep him from screaming. “That’s three.” 

_ “Just come back when you can. Your camp credits have been updated.”   _

Ah! credits the new world’s currency, not much to it really, its figurative money you earn by doing shit, like getting rid of ambush camps, ripper camps, finding some random dude who probably thought was smart enough to steal from a camp or maybe the bounty giver doesn’t like that dude, who knows, Becky certainly doesn’t ask she just acts. 

The latter is what Becky and Charlotte do the most, is one of the things that give the most credits for, allowing them to get more ammo or gas for their bikes. That and they also cut off the ears of every freaker they encounter, they exchange those for credits. Basically is a payoff for helping make the world a better place and getting rid of the infected. One less freaker equals one less predator out there.

_ “And Lynch, I’m still waiting for Ziggler’s stash.” _

“Yes, Owens, I know. I’ll get it soon enough. Becky out.” She says as soon as she gets the last two squaters with her crossbow. “And that’s a total of five out.” 

_ “Hey Becky, you coming back soon?”  _

'She sounds restless' Becky thinks. She didn’t want to say anything to avoid getting Charlotte mad but to be honest she was worried, her arm wasn’t getting any better what with no other means but bandages and water to take care of it, she was worried it was getting infected.

“Hey Queenie, just gonna head to the cemetery to get Ziggler’s stash for Owens then I’ll be back ok?” She tries to answer as normal, not wanting to let her worry slip through her voice.

_ “Ride where?”  _

“The cemetery.” 

_ “I’m sorry… I...I didn’t hear you… where are you riding?” _

‘Shit, maybe it already is infected.’ She thought. “To the cemetery, you blonde boulder, you gettin’ old on me or what?” She asked trying to mask her worries with humor. “Look just rest, I’ll be back soon. We’ll head north as soon as your arm heal and my bike’s ready.”

_ “Right...North… ok.” _

One of the things Becky enjoyed the most about being a former biker member was simply riding down the roads, feeling the wind around her, enjoy nature, the smell of pine trees, the occasional stranger who would share a beer with her in a rest stop. She remembers riding with Alexa, if she thinks hard enough she can almost feel the blonde’s arms around her, leaning most of her weight on her back, resting her head on the redhead’s shoulder...

_ “Hey Becks…” _

Snapped out of her thoughts she presses the accelerator on her bike. “What’s the crack, Charlie?”

_ “Did...did you say you are riding North?” _

“No, no Chucky Chuck, I’d never ride out without ya.”  

_ “Right...yeah...sorry, Im just...a little out of it.” _

“Yeah, well someone bbq’d your arm Charlie, I’d say that’s a valid excuse.” She said, she was getting closer the cemetery. Charlotte’s condition was getting worse each day, and the fact that she had to stay cupped up in that tower all day wasn’t helping matters. She needed a plan, a she needed it asap.

**Past**

“You sure you want to do this?” Asked Alexa. Both women were standing outside of the cemetery,  the redhead holding the blonde’s hand a little bit harder than usual. The blonde turned to look at the redhead who was just standing in front of the cemetery gate looking serious and solemn.  “I mean we don’t have to.”

“No. I have to.” Becky responds, she then takes a deep breath and nods to herself  before walking into the cemetery and pulling Alexa with her.

The cemetery wasn’t big, is was relatively small so making their way to Balor’s grave didn’t take long, Becky had a stiff posture as if being there made her uncomfortable, anxious. 

Finn Balor was Becky’s mentor and friend, when she first got to Oregon as a struggling young adult, he was the one who gave her a home, who gave her a job, taught her everything she knew about motorcycles, supported her when she thought joining the military was a good idea and helped her get back to her former self after her time there. Becky knew she would’ve end up either in jail or just drunk of her ass if it wasn’t for him.

 “So you know how I almost kinda ghosted you after we first met?” Asked Becky as the were getting closer to the grave.

“Oh, you mean when you lied and said you lost your phone even though you had your reading receipts on so I knew full well you were ghosting me?” The blonde responded crossing her arms after they reached the spot.

“Right.” Becky nodded. “So, I got...like...sort of kinda overwhelmed because I was starting to like you, but you well...were you.” She gestured to the blonde with her hands. “So I thought soon enough she’ll see that I’m not worth her time, so I kinda pretended not to care and kept sayin ‘Nah, she’s not all that.’ but you were in fact all that and Finn of course noticed and he umm… pulled me aside one day and basically told me to get my shit together because I was good enough and people like you only come around once.” She took a deep breath and sat down in front pulling the blonde along with her.

“Then the accident happened and he was gone.” She continues, her voice getting serious, she reach out to grabbed Alexa’s hand. The blonde girl listening intently. “And I was on a bar gettin’ drunk, the other horsewomen had left already except Charlie she was somewhere in the same bar making sure I’d stay out trouble, and I could hear his voice in my head tellin’ me to call you, to hold on to you. And so I did, I called you that night super drunk at two in the morning.”  

“I remember.” Said the blonde softly. 

Becky leans out and brushes her hand against the stone, right over Finn’s name. She feels a little guilty for not visiting sooner, but she’s here now. That’s what matters, she supposes.

“I think, he would’ve like to know that I listened to him, that I held on to you. So much so I’m marrying you.” She finished saying with a smile.

“And I think, he would’ve been proud of you.” The blonde said, her free had on the back on the redhead’s neck, dragging her nails across it. 

“Can I ask something of you?” The redhead asked after a few moments of silence. “When I die… don’t bury me. I don’t think I’d like to be buried six feet underground.” 

“I don’t think you’d notice if you are dead, Becky.” Alexa deadpans.

“My ghost would.” She answers just as seriously.

The blonde blinked and sighed “Fine then what do you want?” 

“I dunno.” She shrugged. “A sky funeral maybe…”

“No.” The blonde interrupts. “I’m not letting animals and birds eat your body like some sort of buffet.” 

“Ok, then what do you suggest?”

The blonde took a few seconds to think it over. “How ‘bout I cremate you and I go scatter your ashes somewhere in Ireland.” She proposes. “That way you are free, flying with the wind or whatever, back at home and I get to keep the urn as a keepsake.”

“Sounds good. And you? What would you like?” The redhead turns to look at Alexa. 

“I think, I’d like to be buried. Be somewhere people can come to visit if they’d like, you know?”

“Ok.” Becky nods and stands ups, dusting the dirt from her jeans. “You release me in Ireland and I bury you.” She then extends a hand to help the blonde up from the ground. 

“We have a deal, Lexi”

**Present**

There is a stillness in the air as Becky stares at the stone in front of her. Ziggler’s stash on her backpack. It was dark at night which meant more freakers were out looking for a meal and you could hear the faint growling in the distance. But the cemetery was the one place Becky made sure to keep freaker free as much as possible. Finn didn’t deserve his resting place to be filled with decay and sickness. 

She lets out a sigh. Her hands on the pockets of her jeans and takes a few steps back and says “What would you think of the world right now, Finn? What would you think of me now?”

She reaches down to touch the name of the stone one last time before she finally turns back,  making her way to another newer stone, this time it wasn’t a proper grave, a proper stone with a name nicely engraved in it, it was a simple big round stone placed in a small flower field by the side of the cemetery. The name on it Alexa Bliss. 

“It’s not a proper grave Lexi, sorry about that but is all I can do with this circumstances.” She says, this time she sits down in front of it and takes an old thermos filled with instant coffee, she then pours some of it on a couple styrofoam cups and places one of them in front of the stone, the other one remaining in her hand.   
  


**Three Years Ago**

They were currently on a rooftop trying to figure out what their escape plan would be, their first step was to find a way to get out of Farewell, they could figure out the rest once there were out of town. 

“We gotta go.” Becky said to Alexa, she could see a mob moving closer in the distance.

“Becks, wait.” The blonde held on to her counterparts arm that had been scratched after they crawled through a broken window.

“It’s fine, babe. It’s just my arm.” She turned to look inside the building, to see if it was safe. “‘Tis but a scratch.” she continued, a grin on her face.

“No it’s just...you told me that we shouldn’t come back, and I didn’t listen to you.” The blonde said frustrated. “We should’ve stayed on the outsides of the town.” She was tying up a piece of cloth she managed to find around Becky’s wound to at least keep pressure on it to keep it from bleeding. “And I knew it was getting worse but I didn’t listen to you, and now…”

“Hey, it’s ok, none of us knew it was gonna blow up like this. Not this fast.” The redhead grabbed the blonde by her arms to stop her from rambling.

“You don’t understand.” She says once again frustrated. “I don’t know what I would do If I lost you.” Her voice cracking a little. “This is my fault.” She continued pointing at Becky’s wound.

“No one’s losing anyone.” The redhead said softly getting closer to the shorter girl. “I made a promise remember?” She continues, showing the blonde her right hand to display her wedding ring.  “So let’s keep moving alright?”

They had managed to find their way down from the roof, making their way to the next street by walking through an alley, when the blonde spotted a crouched down, hooded figure behind one the dumpsters.

“Becky, wait!. There’s a kid here.” The blonde said, getting closer to the kid. “Hey, it’s ok we gotta find your parents.” She said softly reaching out to place a hand on their shoulder, when suddenly the kid turns around and stabs a knife on the side of her torso, at this Becky takes out her gun and shoots a bullet in the air making the kid snap out of it and run, dropping the knife. 

“Jesus! Fuck!” The blonde exclaims, her hands on her wound. “He fucking stabbed me!”

“Oh hell.”  Becky whispers. “Oh hell, how bad is it?” She asks walking closer to Alexa.

“Um, I don’t know, I don’t… I don’t think is too bad, at least it doesn’t feel too bad, but what the hell do I know?” 

“Ok, ok, um hold this there as tight as you can.” She removes her hoodie and gives it to the blonde to press against the wound. “We are almost near the evacuation point, Charlie is meeting us near there.” 

Becky makes her first kill that night, they were being chased down by a horde of newly turned freakers, so they managed to get inside an old building, they were making their way up when Alexa couldn’t take it anymore and fell to the floor, she helped her sit down behind an office desk with Charlotte beside her while she looked for a way up to the roof, when a random guy who was hiding there to who was also in a full panic and delirious pulled a gun her, exclaiming she had kill his wife, she tried to stop him and they fought for the gun, at the end she had no choice it was her or him.

**Present**

Becky was finishing recounting the recent events to Alexa, Charlie’s arm, Owens, Ziggler everything, her coffee cup now empty. 

“So yeah babe, you uh… you rest easy.” She said already standing up. “I’ll be back to check on you soon.” She placed a kiss to two of her fingers and then place them on the stone, right on top of Alexa’s name and walked away. 

As soon she walks down through the cemetery old gates, she hears a familiar yet very uncommon sound, uncommon as in she hadn’t heard or seen it in since that night with Alexa.

“Is that a chopper?!” Becky looks up to the sky as a helicopter flies over her, as if she wasn’t there. “A Nero Chopper!” She quickly secures the stash on the back of her bike and gets on it, fully intending to follow it. “A Goddamn fed chopper after all this time? Comin’ out of nowhere?”

‘Don’t do anything stupid, Becky.’ She can almost hear Finn’s warnings in her head as if he was somehow next to her, even after all time he’s still taking care of her.

“Hell No. Not doin’ anything stupid… just following them to see what they are doing.” 

 


	4. Making Contact / It Was On Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Becky finally gets a clue about her wife and makes a new friend!

N.E.R.O National Emergency Response Organization, a US Government Agency tasked with responding to disasters and other emergency situations, it was the agency that first arrived to Oregon to assist with evacuation at the start of the outbreak, the situation was dire, as everything east of the Mississippi River was overrun. As the situation worsened, Nero attempted to control the infection by setting up outposts and checkpoints to screen civilians, this to identify and eliminate infected refugees and to redirect civilians to safe zones.

“Alright choppity, chop, chop, let’s see what you are doing.” Becky whispered from her place in the bushes. The chopper hovering low to the ground as four Nero guards and scientist come down from it, all wearing protective suits.

The world as we know it disappeared three years ago, all that remains are survivors and rippers, some remained at camps, others like herself and Charlotte were drifters, meaning they would not settle at a camp but would occasionally collect bounties and do jobs for the camps in exchange of credits for supplies, others instead of working for it, steal it, kill for it if necessary with no one to stop them. All government agencies are gone, there’s no military, no police, nothing, all Nero checkpoints and other government refugee camps were gone, either overrun or abandoned, so when you see a chopper from a government agency that’s supposed to no longer exist, makes you wonder where exactly are they located and why are they making their presence known now.

Becky was hiding on a nearby bush, there were two Nero guards and one researcher near a cave entrance, the scientist seemed to be taking samples of the ground among other freaker... things. 

“Field note 5400, after tracking a large moving group, estimated size of five to six hundred, we have confirmed the subjects hibernation at…”

“Hey Doc… I see site twenty-three for tomorrow, is that us?” One of the guards interrupt.

“No that’s Zayn. Now where was I…”

“Zayn?” Becky asked herself quietly.  

“HIbernation location is at High Desert Cave, according to motion sensor placed by Lt. Zayn approx. 447 subjects have entered the cave today.” the Scientist continues as she walks to another cave entrance.

“Fucking Zayn.” Becky exclaims quietly. “He’s not dead.” She continues as she follows the NERO group to the next location. “And if he’ didn’t die at that refugee camp… then…what the hell happened to Alexa” 

Becky stops for a second and then shook her head as if trying to get rid of any hope or ideas she could come up with. “No, no, no, no… forget it...can’t… it can’t be… don’t go there Rebecca.”

She waited at her spot until the NERO groups finished their business, once she made sure the chopper was out of sight she once again walked to her bike and took off to her and Charlotte’s camp.

“Charlie, you awake?” She asked as she walks up the tower. 

“Yes.” The blonde mumbles. “I have been awake since this happened.” She puts her arm up while saying that.

“Charlotte, you are not going to believe what I saw tonight.” She said sitting down straight in her bunk.

The blonde turned to look at her friend and after seeing that she was anxious as fuck she sat up straight to look at her, worried. 

“You know that… that guy that took Alexa… the NERO guy, remember his name?”

“Oh God, Zayn, Samuel Zayn, Sami Zayn, gingersnaps, you wouldn’t shut up about him all the way to Three Finger Jack.” She answers, wondering why her friend was bringing this back now, “Why?”

“Ok, he’s alive Chucky...alive.” 

“What? What are you talking about?” Asked the blonde confused.

“Ok, hear me out. So I was doing the bounty things for Owens right and well since the job was at the cemetery well…”  

“You visited her.” It wasn’t a question, but rather an affirmation. 

“Y..yes… but that’s not the thing, the thing that happened was I saw a chopper, an actual NERO chopper flying over me.” 

“A chopper?” Charlotte asked surprised. “A federal chopper?”

“Yeah! So I followed it…”

“You what?!”

“I followed it, keep up Queenie.” 

“Why would you do something that stupid?!’

“It’s not stupid if I got some information out of it.”

“Becky.”

“Just listen, I was spying on the scientist there and they mentioned Zayn and Im not doing what you think I’m doing, I just wanted to you know that he’s alive so maybe… maybe… he knows exactly what happened with Alexa… how it happened.” 

“Becks.” Charlotte said softly. “At some point you will need to let her go, you know that right?” 

“Right.” Becky nodded, “Um… Owen’s is out of jobs and we uh… we need more supplies and I need more stuff for my bike. So I uh.. I think I’ll head to Stephanie’s tomorrow, see if she has any jobs available.”  She changed the subject quickly, not wanting to dwell on the implications of what she found out tonight.

“Stephanie’s? Ok we’ll head there in the morning.” 

“No. Charlotte, me not you.” She sighed. “Your arm is still healing, and you haven’t been sleeping well lately so just rest okay?”

\--------------------------------

Stephanie Mc.  was the leader and founder of Hot Springs Camp, before the world went to shit, she was the head of the female ward at a penitentiary. She believes that everyone has to work in order to earn their keep, either you work or you don’t eat as simple as that. Understandably the rest of the camp is full of assholes what with most of them being former criminals it was easy to see why neither Charlotte or Becky wanted to lay roots there.

But then again, it was one of the camps that could offer jobs and better supplies. More food and more ammo than others, hence the reason Becky was heading there after not setting a foot there for the past month, luckily she’s not walking in empty handed.

“Where’s Stephanie? Shane?” Becky asked as soon as she arrived into the camp.

“Digsite. The north one.”

Becky got off her bike, and started making her way to the place not before leaving a warning the camp’s guard. “Anybody touches that bike, or anythin’ on it, I’ll break their arm off.”

“I’m telling you, is going to take a lot of manpower to reach fertile ground, jackhammers…”

“I don’t need a lecture, Goddamn it. I get it”

“No you don’t! All we have are picks and shovels it’s going to take us months to do it.”

“I don’t give a shit! We are all hungry Shane, this job gotta get done even if it takes a whole damn year.”

“Stephanie you can’t…”

“Everythin’ alright here?” Becky interrupts their discussion as soon as she reaches the digsite. 

Stephanie and Shane both turned to look at Becky, one with a smirk and the other one with distrust.

“You found Leon?” Stephanie asks, her talk with Shane already forgotten.

Becky only releases a breath and gives Stephanie a bloody belt buckle, the thing she needed to get the bounty of the last job she got from Stephanie. 

“Good, walk with me.” They start making their way towards the center of the camp. “How long’s it been since you found someone and brought them to me huh?”

“The kind of people we encounter out in the shit, is not people you want in your camp Steph.”

“We need people, Becks. The fever wiped a lot of people and with more and more rippers heading north Im afraid we are losing resources” 

“It’s not my problem, Steph.”

Stephanie stopped walking and turned to the redhead. “You want our food and supplies? then I’m making it you problem.”

Becky could only sigh annoyingly. “As I said before, me and Charlotte will do runs for you, but we are not joinin’ the camp, it’s not worth it.”

“Aren’t you..” They get interrupted.

“Stephanie!”

“I’m having an important talk here people, what do you want?”

“The counts off, we are missing food and some ammo.”

“You were sayin`?” Becky tells the other woman with a smirk.

“The camp is filled with a bunch of lazy ass, thiefs, rapists and murderers, what did you expect?” The woman answered with a sigh.

“Exactly my point.”

“Fine, do as you wish, but I do have a job for you, a young woman, one of my guys told me they saw her, if she’s alive I want her here, find her before the freakers do. I’ll make sure to update your credits.”

Becky breathes deeply. “Fine, consider it done.”

“Shane O’Mac! My man.” She says walking towards the merchant post, she needed to refill her stuff if she was meant to look for this woman, if she’s even still alive.

“What do you want, Lynch?”

“Whoa! Who peed in you cheerios Shaney?”

“One of my men escaped a ripper camp by Iron Butte, tortured him as they do, but they kept asking him if he knew of two bikers, two women…” He move his head slightly to the side, eyeing Becky’s denim worn out best. “Ripper called them horsewoman.”

“You have a price on your head Lynch, how does it feel to be on the other side?”

“Just show me your stuff, you dope, I don’t have time for this.” She answer seriously, knowing full well, Shane was right she was longer just the hunter but also the prey.

\-----------------------

“Charlie, you there?”

_ “Yes, Becks. Im here.” _

“So you know how you said I shouldn’t do anything stupid, like I dunno chase a federal chopper and spy on them?”

_ “Yes.”  _

_ “ _ Well I kinda ignored you, so I’m followin’ it right now and they kinda saw me and shot at me but now they think Im dead, but I’m not so I got back up and now I’m following them again, and I’ll let you know what I found out, bye!”

_ “Becky! what…” _

“Straight fire out.”

“Alrighty, what you doing now?” She pulls out the binoculars from her bag, and what she sees confuses her, they were wrangling a newt? Maybe because it was the weakest type of freaker, a kid basically. They had it tied down with one of those thing the people on the animal channel would use to control wild dogs and such things. But why?

She could see a green light blinking from something in the scientist hand, a radio, a gps tracker maybe? Either way whatever the hell they were doing got cut short by a horde of freakers coming out of a cave, some of them even jumping on the helicopter only to be pushed out or shot at by the guards. 

The NERO researchers left their equipment in a hurry, so Becky figures best thing would be to wait until morning, when all the freakers were back in the caves hibernating. 

_ “Are you still alive?” _

Charlotte’s voice crackles from the radio beside her walking her up, she had hidden her bike as best as she could and took refuge in a old cabin to spend the night in. 

“Charlie, hey!”

_ “Don’t Charlie me!, I was worried sick, you jerk!” _

_ “ _ Um..oops?”

_ “Jesus Becky, I swear you have a death wish! So what did you find?” _

“Let’s see, I’m making my way to the site, they left some equipment there, aaand aha! bandages Charlie, I got you knew bandages.” She said while looking through the equipment boxes the NERO group left behind. “Last night, it looked like they were wrangling freaks, like they were putting a tracking device on it or somethin’, ya know? like the wildlife shows we used to watch.”

_ “Wrangling? why would they be doing that?” _

“Beats me, Chucky Chuck, but they did drop a radio, on their way out. I’m going to see if maybe with this I can track Zayn down and get some answers.”

_ “Damn it, Becks. Look I...I’ll be able to ride soon, I’ll help you out ok?” _

“Ok, you rest up Charlie, I’ll check in on you later, gotta do some business for Steph, straight fire out.”

“Damn dope is alive.” Becky said out loud. “He’s alive, maybe he knows what happened to Alexa.” As she rides down the road, her mind can’t seem to stop thinking about the blonde girl, she can’t help but wonder what kind of survivor would she be? 

**Past**

“Dammit!” Alexa exclaimed while she opened the hood of her car. The stupid car that was given to her by her employers was apparently a piece of shit and would always break down in the middle of the road. Her inner tantrum was interrupted by the sound of motorcycle stopping beside her.

“Hey.” Says the redheaded woman on said bike. She was stunning, if Alexa was being honest, she was wearing a white shirt, a denim vest that had seen better days with several patches, torn jeans and combat boots. Her long red hair was loose, with a french braid on the side, showing off a jawline carved by the Gods, at least that’s what it looked like to the blonde, not to mention her tattoos were just...wow.

“Hey.” She responded back, trying to act normal. She may be hot, but she’s also a total stranger and she’s totally alone in the middle of a very vacant road. So she turns back to her car looking at the engine trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with it. 

She assumes the hot stranger would leave but alas she stays, simply staring at Alexa and then the ground, Becky knows she needs to come up with something quick, when she stopped her plan was to simply offer to take a look at the car, maybe offer directions to the closest gas station, but then she saw the owner of the car and well… she wanted to do more than that.

Clearing her throat she says “So, I um… Im sorta lost, I was hopin’ you could help me out?”

she says with a tiny shrug and smile.

“I’m sorry, you are lost?” Alexa asked clearly not believing the other girl but willing to humor her.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m lookin’ for the Old Belknap Road, and there’s not a lotta signs around here.”

“Oh, come on!, you gotta be kidding me.¨ Alexa says chuckling, one of her hand going through her hair.

“Nope.” She says, and then turns to look at the road in front of her trying to hold in a chuckle.

“What?”

“Nothin’” 

“What is it?”

Chuckling Becky only moves one of her side mirrors towards Alexa pointing at her cheek. 

“Oh..” The blonde looked closer at her reflection in the mirror, cleaning out the grease smudge she had on her cheek.

“So ‘bout those directions?” Becky asked trying to get the attention of the blonde.

“Listen. Buddy, I just moved here alright, I don’t know where Belnock, Belnack, Belknee, Bell…”

“Belnap?”

“Yes, whatever. I don’t know where that is. So I can’t help you sorry.”

“Sooo… that’s a no, then?” She tilts her head to the side in question.

“Nope.” Alexa deadpans, crossing her arms.

“Alright, see ya’.”  She says as she restarts her bike and advances a couple of feet.

“Hey!” Alexa exclaims, uncrossing her arms. “Are you not going to help me? you asshole.”

Becky chuckles and reverses, when she reaches Alexa’s place again, she turns to look at her and casually asks “Could you use a ride?”

“Yes!, finally. Thank you for offering. I’m Alexa.”  

“Becky.” The redhead gets off her bike and offers her hand to the blonde girl.

“Right sooo, how do I get on that?” She said pointing to the bike,

“Not much to think, just throw your leg over it.” She said shrugging, helping her get on it.

“Hold on tight.” Becky says as she takes off, the blonde holds on to Becky’s waist stiffly, trying to keep as much distance as possible, but also kinda not wanting to.

“So, what is a girl like you doing in a place like this?” Becky asks as they go down the road.

“I ask myself  that all the time.” She mumbles. “I’m a researcher, I study things…”

“I know what a researcher is.”

“Right. I do plants, I study them. The company I worked for opened a lab here and well here I am in the middle of nowhere”

“Huh.. inter…”

“Watch out!”

A car turns in the interseccion  at top speed, not even bothering to check for other drivers, all Becky can do it swerve out of the way, doing a full turn on the road.

“Assholes!” She yells, breathing deeply at the scare. 

Meanwhile the blonde just gets down the bike and rest her hands on her knees. “Jesus, fuck that was close!” She continues to breath in and out when her cell phone rings.

“Oh, thank God, hey listen the car you gave me, is a real piece of shit, I need a tow.” 

Becky meanwhile dust herself off and cleans a bit of the dust that gathered on her tank while the blonde talks on the phone.

“Where are we?” Alexa asks the redhead, the phone on her shoulder.

“Road 42.”

“Road 42.” She says to the person on the phone. “So much for being lost huh?” She says after hanging up.

“Depends on who you ask, my mother says I’ve been lost for years.” She said smiling. “Now, come on, I´ll take you back to your car and wait for the tow with you.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, trust me.”

**Present**

“Oh Lexi, if you only knew I’m more lost than ever these days.” Becky said quietly. 

“Hot Springs Camp, come in.” Becky calls from her radio, she had parked and hidden her bike at the edge of Marion Forks a very small town south of Hot Springs Camp, this was the location Stephanie had mentioned they’d seen the girl, if the girl was still alive then she needed to find her, even if the redhead was still unsure sending her to Steph’s camp was a good idea.

_ “Becky, that you?   _ Stephanie’s voice crackled through the radio.

“Yeah, it’s me, so tell me more about this survivor.”  Taking out her binoculars she did a quick exploration of the place, no rippers or other survivors on sight, only freakers though considering she already spotted 3 nests, that seemed to be normal.  So far the only logical first step would be to get rid of freakers, she had done a quick recount of her supplies and she had enough to make a few molotovs to set the nest on fire, she had restock her gun ammo and managed to make a temporary suppressor, this way she could shoot at them without calling any unnecessary attention. 

_ “I already told you everything we know, a young woman, black hair, light skin… although Jim did mention they had seen her near Hungry Jesse’s”  _

“Hungry Jesse’s, big, weird, creepy lumberjack statue with a huge stack of pancakes, alright, I’ll start there.”

_ “And remember, Lynch, bring her to me. Some drifters came by last night and traded us a few guns, maybe you can find something better than that lousy gun of yours. Stephanie out.” _

“Yes, ma'am.” Becky mumbled. 

“Where did the one legged waitress worked?” She asked herself from her place in the bushes, she had been shooting the freakers that came out of a nearby nest, next to the pancake place. “IHOP” she said with a laugh, a bullet going through the last freakers head. 

“Oh man, I’m hilarious.” She continues laughing, as she comes out of her hiding spot, once all freakers are dead, she collects the bounties and makes her way into the small dinner, checking for clues.

Thanks to the mess of leaves, dirt and shit the freakers leave she was able to trace some footprints leading to a small two story house near the dinner, as she observed the house she notices pretty much all windows and doors on the bottom floor were blocked by wood, but if this survivor was coming in out of the house there has to be another way in.

She places all of her focus on finding a way in, all while avoiding to fully look at the small church in front of the house, she had already thought too long about a certain blonde and the unfortunate turn of events, the last thing she needed was to remember their wedding day.

That night was something that still hunted her to this day, three years later and all she can think of is what if?, what if she had gotten on that chopper with her? could they’ve both escaped, would they be drifters with a camp of their own? or would her, Alexa and Charlie settle a camp? 

Shaking her head, she got rid of those thoughts, like Charlie said it was not use, the only difference would be she’d be dead too, that’s it. Maybe, just maybe once she found that Samuel Zayn guy she could finally get some answers and have a peaceful night for once. 

Sighing she looked at the house’s garage where she could see a crashed car blocking most of it, except a corner of it, which left a small crawling space between the garage door and the floor. 

“Aha!” She exclaimed as she crouched and quickly looked around to make sure nothing would caught her by surprise on the outside, as for the inside she shone her flashlight  and threw a rock inside, when nothing happened she deem it safe to crawl into.  Heading inside she noticed everything seem relatively intact, except the way up the stairs was blocked by some furniture but not enough that she wasn’t able to climb it, reaching upstairs she cautiously walks around, searching room by room, luck seemed to be on her side as when she pushes the door for the last room, she sees a woman, no signs of her being sick or anything only scared while holding a bat with both of her hands, trembling.

“Step back!” She yells.

“Ok, it’s ok.” She says, putting away her gun and walking slowly into the room. “Don’t be afraid, I’m not gonna hurt you.”  She puts her hands up to to show that she was not there to hurt her. “Are you alone, is there anybody else with you?” 

The woman then puts the back down, as her bottom lip started quivering, a few sobs escaping from her mouth. 

“Okay, uh..” Becky confused as to what to do, stars looking around the room to see if there is anything she can talk about to change the subject.  “Is this your place?”  no answer. She walks towards a desk and sees a plushie in from of a cloud so she grabs it and turns to the woman. “Do you know what kind of shorts do clouds wear?” She asks, the woman turns to her, her eyes still full of tears but not fully sobbing.

“Uh… thunderwear.”  The redhead responds with a quick smile.

The other woman flashed a smile that morphed into a full laugh, the redhead smiles briefly and then clears her throat. “Im uh.. Becky.” 

Sniffling the woman calms down and responds. “I’m Nikki, my fiance gave me that. We went to an amusement park, north from here and he...”

“Nikki.” Becky interrupted the girl, as much as she wanted to make this easy, they needed to get moving if she wanted to make it to the camp before nightfall. “I’m sure it’s a lovely story, but it’s not safe here, we need to leave, I know of a camp not far from here and I....”

“I was at the gym.” The black haired woman said somberly. “I was a personal trainer.”

“I got a call from Killian, my fiance, he said I should come home and not stop, said he and my parents would wait for me and we’d leave together.” Becky swallowed hard, already knowing how the story was going to end. “But I came home and they were gone, and there was… a note that said they left with some men and...and I didn’t know what to do.”  Becky closed her eyes and released a breath, when she opened them again the woman’s eyes were full of tears again. “So I hid and I…” Becky’ suddenly felt a body collide with her as the woman sobbed on her shoulder. “I didn’t know what to do…” 

Becky awkwardly tried to comfort the woman, it was clear that just like everyone else she had experience some shit for the past three years, just the fact that someone could leave her, that they didn’t wait for her, that would be enough to destroy a person, and she cant help but feel that that’s just the way Alexa may have felt when she left her in that chopper.  No one deserved to go through this alone, she had Charlie, Stephanie had Shane, Owens had the people at his camp, who did Nikki had?  

“Nikki, listen… there’s a camp not far from here, there’s other people there, and not gonna lie it’s a working camp, so you gotta work to eat but you’ll be safe there and…”

“No, Killian is coming I know he is…” 

“Nikki…”  Becky sighed. “Maybe… he could be at this camp.”

“You think so?” Nikki asked hopefully. 

“I can’t promise you that, but it’s worth a try right?” 

“Right! Ok.. let’s go.”

The both of them make their way out of the house, though their conversation took longer than expected as the sun was setting down and freakers were making their way out of their hidden places. Quietly they both made their way to Becky’s bike and they took off.

“Well who do we have here?” Stephanie saw Becky arrived from a far with a woman beside her, ‘She found her’ she thought and just in time as they were running low on workers.

“Stephanie!” Nikki exclaimes as soon as she sees the older woman walk towards them, she gets off Becky’s bike quickly and throws herself into her arms.

“Nikki!, it’s ok, you are safe now.” She whispers to her as she holds her close.

“There were lots of sick people, and then they were dead and Killian was gone and…”

“Hey, shh… shh, it’s ok. You are here now.” She turns to look at Becky and sees the questions in her eyes, “We were neighbours, I lived a block away.” SHe rubs her hands up and own the younger woman’s arms and looks at her. “Let’s get you cleaned up and get some food in you.” She finishes with a smile. “Wait for me inside, I’ll be right there.”

Nikki nods and walks to the small cabin however she turns around briefly and gives Becky a thankful smile. “Thank you, Becky.” 

Both Stephanie and the redhead watch a the woman gets inside the house, the older woman then turn to look at Becky and simply says “Thank you, I’ll update your credits tonight.”

“Listen, Steph, that girl has been through a lot, don’t work her like everyone else otherwise…”

“Do not tell me how to run my camp!, you wanna move here? help us? Then maybe you get some say, otherwise just keep your mouth shut.” 

Becky huffs, but instead of answering she turns around to her bike and takes off.

\--------------------------------------------

Becky was making her way back to their camp for the night, she hasn't been there in a couple of days and she really wants to check on Charlie. The blonde had this habit of saying she was fine, when she was in fact not fine, but she was stubborn and refused people’s help much rather preferring to suffer alone than inconveniencing other people. But in today’s world you can’t let your pride get in the way, working together was key if they wanted to survive this.

She was nearing O’leary mountain when she saw chopper fly down above her, the NERO radio she had forgotten she had crackled with life. 

_ ‘Zayn, how much longer we gonna be out here, chopper is on its way.’ _

“Zayn” Becky pressed the accelerator on her bike and started following the chopper to a small lake hidden behind a small hill by the side of the road. She hid behind a tree and with her binoculars she spotted who she assumed was Zayn based on the white suit. So far all NERO guards she had seen where were yellow and only the scientists were wearing white. So is Zayn was here, that would be the one to look for.

Thankfully all guards kept a good distance between them and the scientist leaving them enough room to work, so sneaking up to him when he was looking at a deer’s carcass was fairly easy.

“Well look at it this way you lucky son a bitch, at least you weren’t torn about by freaker or became one of them, now that wouldn’t be so cool would it?”

“Hey, Sami.” 

Zayn turned around only to find a gun pointed at his face. “Shit! Code 2237 clearly states that if if… I… found any civi...drift…  _ civilians _ I should not...not make contact.” He put his hands up and backed away as much as he could until his back hit a tree.

The redhead pushed through until the barrel of her gun touched Zayn’s protective helmet. 

“Really? That, to me, sounded like…” She clanked her gun twice on the helmets cover “Making contact.” She shrugged.

“Yes, it...it did.” 

“You’re alive.”

“Yes, I am.”

“How?”

“I don’t know what…”

“How are you alive Zayn?” Becky insisted pressing her gun harder on his helmet.

“Protocol 2-07 states that…”

“Dammit Sami! We can do this two ways, the easy way were we have a little chat and you give me the information that I need or the hard way were I crack open that space suit of yours and see what your little buddies think of you havin’ inhaled all this refreshin’ contaminated air.”

“Okay! Okay! The easy way.” 

“Three years ago you were on the rooftop of a brewery at Farewell, I put a woman on your chopper, she was wounded, stabbed. I went to the refugee camp you said you were going to, everyone was dead, so I’m askin’ again, how are you alive?”

“We weren’t there. Uh...we were diverted south to another camp.”

At this Becky lowered her gun and took a step closer to him. “What?”

“Yeah, like you said the camp was uh.. overrun so they moved it um.. south to camp outside of Silver Lake.”

“Were there survivors?” Becky was not looking at him, but at the ground thoughts going a mile per minute. 

“I...I don’t know… they transferred me to the research unit so I…”

“Did she survive?” She insisted, pointing her gun once again towards Zayn, still not looking at him.

“Shit… wait, wait wait” He stuttered.”I,I,I...I can find out, I, I can check.”

“Ok , you are going to do it right now.” She said, pushing him towards the chopper.

“Wait, no! They’ll shoot you.”

“Not if I shoot you first!”

“I did my job ok!” The man snapped, he shoved Becky away from him. “That woman, your wife? I took her to the camp,I gave her oxygen, I put an IV, I kept her alive… she was going septic, she wasn’t going to survive, but I saved her Goddamn life!”

_ “Zayn, we gotta move.” _

They hear through the radio, Zayn turns to leave but Becky stops hims. “Sami, I have one of your radios, and I don’t care how long it takes to find you again, I will find you again and if you don’t have some answers I will make sure to break that suit of yours.”

“I’m sorry about your wife, but you are not the only one that lost someone that night.”  With that he leaves Becky on her own, with nothing more than her thoughts to keep her company.

“He’s alive, he took her south, he said… he said that he have her oxygen, kept her alive, he saved her life, he said it, he said that, so maybe...nope, no, no, no, no, NO don’t go there Becky.” She talks to herself passing back and forth in front of the lake. “But he’s alive… so maybe…”

_ “Becks you there.”  _ A tired voice interrupts her monologue.

“Charlie, hey. So remember I ask you about that NERO guy a couple of days ago?”

_ “Uh, yeah...but...It’s all kinda of a blur to be honest.” _

“Right it’s ok Chuck, get some rest, I’m almost there we’ll talk then.”

_ “When are we riding out here Becks?” _

“Soon Chucky Chuck, as soon as your arm heals we are outta here.”

_ “Right. Okay.” _

\------------------

Another night, another ‘shared’ cup of coffee. Becky once against finds herself sitting down in front of Alexa’s memorial stone.

“Hey babe.”  She tries to clean up around the stone a little, removing grass, fallen leaves, arranges the few flowers she has managed to plant around it, those that are still alive at least. Alexa was the plant girl, not Becky but she does the best she can, so she thinks that’s gotta be worth something.

“Charlie says that I shouldn’t come here anymore, she keeps...asking me what good’s it do and...and I dunno maybe she’s right. She um… she got hurt pretty bad the other day.” She pauses to take a sip of her coffee.

“We ran into some rippers who bbq’d her arm, and she didn’t appreciate my pun...it was lit.” She says with a small smile. “Anyways it um… looks pretty bad. Did I already told you this? I don’t remember, um...anyways, so I went into some of those old NERO things to get some bandages and I...I hope it’s enough.” She sighed. “And she says she’s fine you know…but I dunno, I don’t...I don’t think so, it looks pretty bad to me.”

Taking a deep breath and one more sip of coffee she continues. “See the thing is that it’s on me, I risked her life, for a bike part, a fucking bike part, only to have the Goddamn bike parted out by Owens.” She chuckles. “You would’ve liked it, took me a year to put it together, it’s not the same like the one I thought you to ride in. But it got me around.” She shrugs.

“Remember that tank? The one that you had painted for me? Well that was the only thing left of that old thing and now it’s… gone too. Um the plan is to ride north, as soon as I fix the new shitty bike and Charlie gets better, we’ll head up there. There’s too many memories around here. Too many.” 

“So I guess...what I’m saying is uh...I might not see you again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! Please leave a comment if you want!
> 
> Tumblr: @heartinvacancy


	5. You Are Safe Now

“Hey, you are not answering the radio.” Becky said to her friend. After a couple of days sleeping elsewhere and only talking to Charlotte via radio, she was finally back in the guard tower. And to be honest she had every right to be worried for her friend, she was standing up, looking at the window, swaying a bit and she appeared to be sweating too a sign of her having a fever, which was definitely not good.

“Yep.” The blonde answered simply. “I don’t know. I was…Whoa.” She turned or tried to turn to look at Becky only to lose her balance at the last minute.  “I’m fine… I’m just… tired.”

She brushed off Becky’s attempt to help her, and as best as she could walked towards her bed to sit down.

“You are burning up.” The redhead said worryingly, watching as her friend held her head between her hands.

“My head is pounding like a mother f..” 

“Ok, lay down, I’ll go get something for the fever, I...I’ll figure it out.” She said, gathering some of the supplier she had brought back into her backpack. 

“Hey, no, I’m fine.. Becks, just a headache.”   She said with a small smile.

“Right...a headache.” She said smiling back. “Either way I..um…forgot to give a bountie to Steph so I’ll do that and I’ll come right back, so just rest Chucky, you are starting to look like those mummies we saw on the discovery channel that one time.”

“Oh, fuck off.”

**Past**

“Here, I’ll show you what you are looking for.”  Alexa pulled the redhead by the hand to a secluded area by a lake, the idea was for them to go to dinner, maybe a movie as first date, but the blonde had last minute idea for a project she was working on, a project that ‘ _ could save lives, Becky _ ’ so here they were collecting plants for a date.

“Yep, found it.” Becky said with a smirk as the blonde girl leaned down to pick up the plant, her eyes clearly not on the plant.

“Alright, perv.” The blonde released a small laugh. “Focus.”

“I am focused, lass.” She said, as she let her date pull her down to crouch beside the plant on the ground.

“So this here, it’s called Lavendula Angustifolia.” 

“Lavender.”

Alexa raised her eyes from the flower they were looking at to the redhead with a small smile. “Yes, but I’m still paying my student loans so I’ll stick with latin, thanks. “ 

“Mm-hmm. Yeah, good for ya’, get your money’s worth. Go for it girl.”

“Alright, smartass.” The blonde rolled her eyes fondly. “Now give me your hands.” First she took the redhead’s right hand carefully guided it to the right position, “So you wanna put one hand around the flower…”

“Uh-huh.” Becky listened carefully.

“And then, the other hand at the stem.” She took her other hand and carefully wrapped it round the flower’s stem. “And the you pull nice and slow…”

“You know, I’ve pulled weeds before.” Becky joked, the blonde raised her head to look at the redhead, offended.

“Excuse me ma’am, this is not a weed.” She scuffed. “This a delicate flower, you have to be gentle.” She said with a frown.

“Oh relax! Im  _ orchid _ -ing.”  She responded, barely containing her laugh. 

“Nice one.” The blonde answered with a big smile of her own. 

“Hey look! here’s your flower and…” Becky frowned and pulled away from the flower as soon as the tried to smell it. “It doesn’t smell very good.” 

“No, it does not. Now come on, let’s go find more.” 

As they were following the trail beside the lake, their hands intertwined swinging back and forth they made conversation, Becky gathered that her job is very important to the blonde, seems to like plants a lot so she tried to made the conversation about that. Anything to keep the blonde talking really.

“So why lavender?” She asked.

“We think we have this sub-species that might’ve mutated monoterpenoids that produce a modified lina...”

“That sounds incredible. Tell me more.” Becky says sarcastically.

“Sorry.” The blonde says quietly. “I just get excited.”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind. It’s cute.” Becky says sincerely. “But maybe speak in english for us mortals with just a high school degree.”

“Thanks” The blonde responds shyly. “Um… what I meant is that it has a chemical that we can use to synthesize a new medicine for burn patients.”

“Huh, well in my circle of friends the only chemical used as medicine is weed.” Becky responds. “In fact Charlotte knows this guy with a farm like three miles away from from here…”

“That’s great!” The blonde interrupted. “Charlotte’s gonna end up in prison and take you with her.”

“Okay… so what else do you guys do? Chemical weapons, wmo’s and stuff like that?” 

“No. No, no. I mean, at least not me.” Alexa shook her head. “According to my contract none of my research can be used for military purposes.” 

“Oh! Look there’s more!” The blonde pointed a a small bed of flower though it required to swim to reach a small island. She pulled Becky towards the shore and tried to pull up her shirt, a sign that she planned on swimming.

“Wait!” Becky exclaimed.

“What? what’s wrong? The blonde asks, her shirt half unbuttoned.

“I didn’t mean to stop that.” Becky smirked trying to change the subject.

“What’s wrong?” 

Becky sighs, her hand going to the back of her neck. “It’s kinda of a long story.” She said quietly.

“That’s fine, we can just walk, look for the flowers in another area.” Alexa said, something in the redhead’s eyes telling her, it was a long story in deed, a painful one. 

“Okay… so um… tell me about your plants.” Becky pulled the blonde back on to the trail, letting her take the lead. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, It’s interesting.” 

“Okay.” Said the blonde, a small smile on her face. “So the specific gene of plants are not native to this area, you can thank Odgen for that.”

“Who?” 

“Peter Skeen Odgen, first explorer to come through this part of Oregon, he brought some medicinal herbs with him and some of them got away and now they grow here.” She said shrugging. 

“Interestin’, you know you and my friend Bayley should talk, she likes flowers too. She’s not a scientist or anythin’ but she knows her way around them. She’s a great girl, patched her in myself, we served in the same unit. Makes a mean margarita too.” The redhead said as they slowed down, the blonde having found some more flowers to pick.

“You should come to the clubhouse one day. Maybe tomorrow.” She continues.

“I have to be up at work in the morning the next day so…”

“Fine. I’ll have us back in your bed by ten.”  She smiles coyly. 

“Well with an offer like that…” She walked closer to the redhead, her arms going around the taller girl’s neck. “How can I refuse?” 

**Present**

“Lavender.” Becky thought out loud.

“You said something?” Asked Charlotte from her place in the bed, she was laying down with her good arm covering her face, the other hanging from the edge of the bed.

“It's something Alexa told me, um.. there this plant…”

“I know what lavender is.” The blonde interrupted.

“Right… so it grows in the shade and Alexa once told me that it had medicinal properties to treat burn patients...like you. So I’ll head to Horse Lake to see if I can find some.”

“Is my arm supposed to get better with a flower? seriously?” Charlotte asked irritated, her headache and the constant pain in her arm not helping her current mood. “Ridiculous.” She mumbled. “I went out today you know? My arm is almost good as new.” She continued.

“Really? Because from the looks of it you can barely stand.” Becky responded, trying to remain calm.

“I’m just tired. A stupid flower is no going to make things better!”

Becky breathed deeply trying to remain calm. “I’m going to find some of this shit. I’m gonna make a salve out of it and you, Chucky Chuck, are going to shut up and rub it in your goddamn arm.”  The redhead responded irritated, she understands that Charlotte is in pain and probably tired of being cooped up here. But she’s just trying to help and she has had to get rid of three ripper camps in the past two days all by herself plus her mental exhausting about the Zayn situation, the irish girl is tired and she just wants to sleep. 

“You being a brat is usually amusing but lately it has become the bane of my existence, Queenie.” She sighed and shook her head. “I’m gonna look for those plants now.”

“Shit.” Charlotte mumbles, closing her eyes. “Becks…” She slowly sits up on the bed to look at the girl. “I’m sorry, just going crazy from being up here, I do appreciate everything that you are doing for me...for us. You know that right?” 

“Right.” Becky answered with a barely there smile. “Get some sleep.”  She said walking out into the night and leaving Charlotte by herself.  The guilt of treating Becky like that after what’s she’s been doing for them very present in her mind.

“Fuck.”

\------------------------

“Becky!”

“Killings, you got somethin’ new for me?” Becky asked. R-Truth had called her on the radio asking her to come to the camp, said he had some new part that could interest her, and after what happened with your Charlotte, she needed the time away.

“So I got you some new wheels, you gotta have good wheels for this type of terrain you know? all muddy and...and wet.”  The mechanic was showing her the brand new wheels, and by the looks of it, they were almost as good as the one she had before, plus R-Truth’s right you needed the traction in a mountain terrain like this one.

“Right on! How soon can you get them on my bike?” Becky asked eagerly.

“Well I…”

“Killings!” Owens interrupted them, he was just coming into the camp and by the looks of it he had gone hunting, as he was carrying a sniper rifle and two of his men were carrying a deer, because yes, Kevin Owens was one of those guys who had a doomsday bunker ready at all times. “Get it done tonight. Becky here, has a bounty to get to.”

“Do I?” The redhead asked, turning to look at the man.

“Yep. Got something that might interest you. Walk with me.”

“What’s up with you people and your walking?” Becky mumbled while following the man. “As if I don’t travel enough.” 

“I got some interesting news for you.” They were once again up in his ‘quarters’ because God knows what would happen if the man had a conversation elsewhere. “You know Io? Works at the bounties post? Well she passed by a ripper camp.”

“A ripper camp? Here, in Cascade Wilderness?” Becky ask surprised. It was more rippers usually stayed south, near the mountain pass. Either there or further north west near Stephanie’s camp, they very rarely were seen in this area. That means that maybe Shane was right and the rippers where after her and Charlotte. What other reason could they have to move up north?

“Yep. Heard you and Charlotte had a run in with them recently.”

“Yes, we had a little chat while drinking some tea.” She said sarcastically. “Just tell me where it is.”

Becky spent the night at Owen’s, she could’ve gone back to their camp, but  the ripper camo he mentioned was closer to her current location and going back to the watchtower meant spending more gas. Gas that she didn’t not want to spend any credits on, at least not if it’s up her. 

Waking up, she goes to the kitchen post and exchanges a few credits for some eggs and instant coffee she can prepare for breakfast. As she was enjoying the quiet morning by the lake, she gets interrupted by Stephanie.

_ “Lynch, are you there? Come in.” _

'Really Steph? this early in the morning?.’ She thinks and rolls her eyes.  “Hey Steph, what can I do for ya´?" she responds.

\------------------------

Becky really disliked rippers, she really did, they were a bunch of killers, rapists, murderers and just the very worst thing of this new world, well maybe after the freakers, but you get the gist.  The first time she and Charlotte ran into a ripper camp was a couple of years ago they approached an old lodging settlement and the rippers had build a sigil out of some branches, had a man tied to it, like a deer carcass hung up to bleed out. They had cut off his lower jaw and tongue so he couldn't scream while they carved him up. All he could do was make this mewling sound, like nothing you've ever heard. So yeah. She and Charlotte, killed them all.

It’s easy to recognize a ripper camp  when you see it, their territory is designed to be reminiscent of a freaker nest, with lots of jagged wood, mud, and trash around it, they also add wooden pillars and sigils marking their territory. The hanging, tortured bodies are part of the decor as well, often left out in the open for freakers to eat. After all rippers worship the freakers, believing them to be the next step in human evolution. Not only do they not attack freakers, they kneel before them, sacrificing themselves so that the freaker may eat. So yeah, they are batshit crazy and honestly Becky doesn’t mind getting rid of the camps nor does she mind killing the rippers, in her opinion she’s a making a favor to the rest of the world.

This time was a bit different, she had taken a personal vendetta against them when they bbq’d Charlotte’s arm, that’s true. But this time, they crossed a line. You see Becky had been trying to make friends with Nikki, she’d go to the camp, talk to her, give her small souvenirs she’d find on her travels, even kept her company whilst she did her job. She doesn’t know why, but she feels awfully protective of her and then last night fucking rippers attacked Stephanie’s camp and took some people with them, guess who was part of that group of people? Exactly. So this time, this time they crossed a line and Becky swears then and there to get rid of every single ripper she finds even if it took her the rest of her life.

“Charlotte, you there?” 

_ “Becks, yes I’m here. I tried calling you earlier, you weren’t answering the radio.” _

“Yeah...I was kinda busy.” Becky responded, is not like she was mad but she was frustrated, and yes maybe a bit upset at Charlotte, not that Becky blames her for her attitude as of later, she gets it. Doesn’t make it easier to be yelled at by the person you are tried to protect.

_ “I wanted to say, I’m sorry for the way I acted earlier...it’s just...no, there’s no excuse. I’m sorry.” _

Becky sighed. “It’s fine Chucky, nothing I’m not used to. We’ll ride up north soon Charlie. I promise.”

_ “Right.” _   Becky hears the blonde yawn through the radio.  _ “So you needed something?” _

“I’m on my way, to Separation Meadow, both Stephanie and Owens mentioned a ripper camp up there.” The redhead stops her bike  as soon as she sees the sigils at the distance and hides her bike by some bushes nearby.

“Rippers? This far north?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure what goin’ on but Shane mentioned they were lookin’ for us. That there was a price on our head. And what’s worse, Charlie? they took her. The girl I talked to you about they fucking took her.” Becky said frustrated, she reached into the saddle bags of her bike to take some extra ammo and a couple of pipe bombs as she didn’t know how many rippers where currently living at that camp.

_ “Shit. Becky, I’m sorry, Damn it! I should be there, helping you!” _

“It’s fine, Charlie. Yer arm is a little indisposed right now. Keep restin’, I’ll check in later.”

_ “Okay. Be careful.” _

Walking cautiously she approaches a hiking trail, right next to a small cabin. A wood sign next to it that read ‘Belknap Caves National Monument, Park Services.” As per the usual there were sigils by the side of the road, with hanging dirty banner that read ‘RIP’. The lettering was dripping as if written with blood, which it probably was.

“Alright you son of a bitches, where’s the girl?” Becky mumbles, as she starts following the trail, stopping every once in awhile to check her surroundings. “If you hurt her, I swear to God...well no, scratch that. I’m going to kill you all whether you hurt her or not.”

She sees a bracelet on the ground, one of those knit bracelets she remembers her classmate doing when she was younger, she crouches to take a look and it and looks carefully a the area surrounding it. “Footprints… she was dragged through here.”

She has never been more thankful for Charlotte’s insistence about learning how to hunt and track animals when she first joined the 4HW, the redhead had just come back from the army and the last thing she wanted to do was touch a gun. But with Finn’s patience and Charlotte’s guidance, they slowly made their way up from simply tracking a deer to hunting it and skinning it. Becky retook her liking for guns soon enough after that, even earning the enforcer patch for her vest.

She keeps following the trail and clues until she hears the sound of someone hitting something, like a boxing sack. Except that instead of being that she comes to find it’s an actual human being their hitting. One of Stephanie’s people she supposes. She steadily makes sure no one is around her and makes her way to the ripper from behind hitting him with the back of her rifle. 

“Yeah! Why don’t you find the Path!”  She whispers angrily. she turns to look at the guy hanging for the sigil, and she’s thankful to see he’s still alive in very bad shape but still alive. She carefully cuts him down and drags his body further into the forest, out of sight of the trail and makes a call to Stephanie letting her know she found the camp and that she should prepare a group of people to help bring the wounded back to camp. “Fucking Rippers.”

Slowly but surely she makes her way through the camp, killing the rippers one by one stealthily and taking care of those who were captured. As she disposes of who she hope is the last ripper she goes up into a cabin, where she sees a body on the floor, tied by the ankles and their hands tied together behind them.

“Nikki!” She calls out softly, putting away her gun and approaching the girl. “What did they do to you?” She cuts the ropes and gently turns her into her back, trying to hide her shock at the state of her face. It had a couple of cuts and one side of her face was swollen. She shakes the girl lightly by her shoulders trying to get her to snap out of the shock state that she’s in.

“No! No!” Nikki starts panicking as soon as she feels hands on her shoulders.

“Hey, sweetheart! Shh.. Nikki it’s me, its Becky.” She continues to talk softly.  

“Becky?” Nikki asks confused.

“Yes, Nikki. It’s me. You are safe.” As she hears the shouts and grunts of rippers and gun  shots from the settlers of Hot Springs camp, she pulls Nikki to her feet gently. “Nikki can you run?” The girl nods.

“Do you know where the visitor center is?” Another nod. “Good, my bike is hidden by the bushes a few feet from there, I want you to run over there and not stop. Got it?”

“Don’t stop.” The brunette repeats.

“That’s right. Don’t stop, no matter what. I’ll be right behind you. You ready? Huh? Go!” 

Quickly the both of them run back to the visitor’s center by following the trail and reach Becky’s bike. The both of them not talking until they are few miles away from the site.

“Ok. We are safe now. Are you ok?”

“No.” Nikki answers after a few second of silence.

“Listen, to the south of here there’s camp at Lost Lake, it’s nothing like Hot Springs I can promise you that.” Becky stops the bike and gets off to fully look at Nikki. “Triple H...er… Hunter…he’s nothing like Stephanie.” 

“I hated Stephanie.” 

“Well you are the only one, buddy.” She chuckled. “Lost Lake is a nice camp and it’s a safe place.” She finished with a small smile.

“Ok. I trust you.” 

\---------------------

“Sasha.” 

“Sasha, come back.”

“Sash, are you still on this channel?”

 “Lost Lake camp, come in.”  

_ “Becky? Shit. Long time no hear. What do you want?” _

Becky’s eyes look at one of her rearview mirrors to look at Nikki with a nervous smile on her face. “She’s just moody.” She tells her. 

“Just…meet me. Please.” Becky answers. “On the Cascade Highway, where Belknap Road intersects. I’m on my way there now.” 

_ “Do you know what Hunter said? The night you and Charlotte rode out of here?” _

“I...uh…” Becky clears her throat, once again looking at Nikki. “Yeah. That.” She chuckles nervously. “Um...that’s why I radioed you and not Corbin...Good old Trips doesn’t need to find out about this.” She clears her throat one more time. “I have a woman with me. A survivor.” 

_ “What?” _

“A survivor, she has been out here for a long time.” She says as she maneuvers her bike through the mess of cars while driving through a tunnel.

“You got a survivor, and you are bringing to Lost Lake...not wait. You want me to bring her to Lost Lake.”

“That’s what I said Sash…”

“You there? Sasha… hellooo.”

_ “Shit. Yeah, ok. I’ll meet you there.” _

As they approach the meeting point Becky slows down to a full stop and gets off the bike, helping Nikki off of it as well and offering her some water. 

“You are gonna like there, Nikki. Hunter. He’s...uh… he likes to yell a lot but don’t let that bother you alright? He’s really nice I promise. There also this asshole named Baron Corbin, if he bothers you… just tell Sasha… or… um… tell Bayley. She’s the camps hugger… I mean doctor. And she’s uh she’s good, she can help clean out those wounds. You can count on them Nikki, even if you...uh… even if you screw up.” 

They hear the sound of a bike engine on the distance, and soon enough a blue custom drifter bike is pulling up beside them. A woman with purple hair gets off of it.

“Hey Sasha.” Becky says trying to sound casual.

“Hey, Becky.” She says and crosses her arms, looking at the distance. “I’m surprised. What, did Stephanie give up the slave trade?”  She says in a somewhat passive aggressive manner.

Becky stares for a moment before chuckling. “Uh... Nikki.” She turns to look at the brunette besides her. “This is uh… Sasha… better known as ‘The Boss’. She’s going to take to you a safe place. The one I talked to you about.”

“Nothing has changed, Becks. Triple H is not gonna pay you for this.” Sasha says. Not even looking at Nikki. 

“She’s very nice Nikki, I promise.” She says quickly to the brunette. “She’s just a little moody.”   She then turns to look at Sasha and walks closer to her. “This is not about that at all. It’s not about collecting a bounty or anythin’ like that.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I swear it’s not!, Can you just take her...please?”

“What’s wrong with her Becky?”

“Wow! How rude.” Becky says. “There’s nothing wrong with her, she just had a run with some rippers and I had to…”

“Oh my God.” Sasha whispers and shakes her head. She then walks closer to the other woman. “Hey Nikki. I’m Sasha.” Nikki only stares at Sasha, not saying a word. “Listen do you like playing jenga?” She asks, receiving a nod in response. “Good. I love playing jenga, it’s my favorite thing in the world. Do you wanna go play jenga with me.” 

“Ok.” Nikki responds. “I’ll play with you, Sasha.”

“Great! So come on, let me take you to Lost Lake, it’s a great place… lots of water…” As she starts talking about the camp, she turns to look at Becky giving her a nasty look before getting on her bike. “You’ll love it. Hold on tight.” She says as she starts her bike.

Becky sighs and walks a couple of steps to be side by side with Sasha. “I really appreciate…” She trails off as Sasha take off without another word. “It.” She stares at the road for a while before shaking her head and getting in her own bike.

“Pfft.. how rude of her.”


	6. I Could Use a Hand

Another day, another bounty. This time it was some idiot who decided that stealing some guns from Stephanie’s camp was a good idea. As if they didn’t know how the woman was, surely they must’ve known she’d place a bounty on their head. Seems they were even stupid enough to leave tracks everywhere. Everywhere. If it wasn’t a bike track, it was muddy footprints, or a blood splash. There was always something.

Honestly, Becky is tired. No one ever asks if she has the time and/or mental space to complete a bounty, or get rid of freakers. No one ever considered how much she’s actually on her feet while doing those things when they ask her to ‘Walk with them’. No one ever asks if she needs a break or a shoulder to cry on, or someone to scream at. 

So now here she is, feeling shitty. Tracking some asshole who thought that pissing and leaving his tracks by the side of the road where a good idea. She should be with Charlotte, taking care of her, she should be looking for a way to track that Zayn guy. But no. She’s here pursuing said asshole down the road at top speed trying to shoot at his tires because Stephanie wanted him alive.

And then...and then she hears it. Thunder. Fucking Thunder. Because of course if it’s not the rippers or the freakers is the fucking rain. “Why is it always raining? Goddamn it!” 

“Hey Roach! Where you going buddy?!” She pressed the accelerator on her bike and starts getting close. “I just want to talk!”

“No!. Stephanie sent you, she wants me dead!”

“Stop Goddamn it! If I wanted ya’ dead you’d already be dead!” As she gets close, she pulls out her gun and aims at his bike tire and for the first time in the night luck seems to be in her favor as she successfully manages to blow his tire, making him lose control and crash against a tree.

“Hey Roach, how you doin’ buddy?” She says as she gets off her bike and walks towards him, with some rope. “You see, I told ya’ I wasn’t going to kill you.” She continues as her ties his arms and ankles together.

“I did nothing! Stephanie’s wrong!” The man says struggling.

“Yeah, well that’s not what Steph says, and guess who is the one paying the credits?” She says smirking and walking away. “Steph, I got him. Northwest of Iron Butte tunnel.”

\--------------------

Becky was finally able to get a full night of sleep after a week. She was having a dream, or more like a memory it was always a memory. A reminder of that night, about how she left Alexa in that chopper alone, how she broke her promise.

“Oh they’re coming, they’re coming, they’re gonna…” A very sweaty, very delirious tall blonde, is standing in the middle of the room, a sawed off shotgun on her hand. “They wanna, no! They’re on me, they’re gonna…”

Becky stirs from her sleep, and slowly opens her eyes, looking around the room for the interruption, “Charlotte, was going on?” Becky ask groggily, only to sit up completely once her friend turns to her alarmed.

“No!, How’d you get in here?” She asks, raising her gun and pointing it at Becky.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Chuck, what the...”

“You stay right there! You stay there.” She interrupts her. At this the redhead puts her hands up and cautiously starts getting up.

“Charlie, it’s me, Becks. Let’s just calm down.”

“Don’t you come any closer, I will kill you!” The blonde insists, a crazed look in her eyes.

“Let’s just talk about it.”  As soon as she gets up, she pushes the barrel of the shotgun away from her, taking it with both her hands, trying to get it from the blonde. “C’mon give me the gun!”

“No! No!” The blonde struggles against Becky’s hold on her hands and gun.

“Give the gun, buddy! C’mon!” 

“No! I will not…” Becky finally pulls the gun away from the blonde, but not without the blonde managing to press the trigger, the bullet going through the roof, and the blonde falling backwards.

“Oh shit! Oh Jesus Christ. Charlie, what the fuck?!” The redhead asks, panting. Unloading the gun. 

“I...I.. heard them.” The blonde said from the floor. She looked sick, dark eye bags on her face, from the lack of sleep, trembling and sweating at the same time, her arm looked swollen even with the bandage on. “I heard’em, I heard voices…” She says pointing to the door.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.” Becky’s hand go to her hair and she start pacing back and forth.

“Did you hear them too?”

“No, Charlie! I didn’t hear shit. You have blood poisoning.”   

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do Charlie, just look at you Goddamn arm!” Becky raising her voice, clearly angry, at what she doesn’t know,  most likely herself for not noticing it either, the blonde’s arm is swollen but she could see some redness/purpleish tone from the edge of the bandages. 

“Come on, I know someone who can help.” She extends her hand to the blonde to help her up. 

“I don’t need help.” She says between her teeth, slapping the hand away and getting up herself.

“Sure, whatever you say Chucky, lets just go for a ride then.”

“A ride... ok... yeah." She nodded. "I heard voices you know? Like I could hear them in my head.” She continued as the both of them started making their way out the cabin.

“I know, Chucky. Watch the steps…”

“I know! Anyways I could...I could hear boots...like steps in my head.” 

“Yeah, I get it. Just a few more steps, careful.”

“I don’t need help. I can walk on my own.” The blonde once again pushed the redhead’s hands again.

“I don’t know what happened… I just… I could see them coming… all of them you know… wait...where are going?” Charlotte stopped walking when she saw Becky get on her bike, waiting for her.

“Just a short ride, Charlie. To clear your head, ya know?”

After about 20 or 30 minutes of riding, Becky stops by the side of the road, the rocky landscape was perfect to hide the bike and take some refugee from the cold weather in a small pass between two rock formations that merged into the ground. She helps the stubborn blonde off her bike all while hearing her complaints and let her fall to the ground as per the blonde’s insistence that she could move without help and proceeded to light a fire to keep them warm, she then took a package of beef jerky out her saddlebags and divided it between the both of them.

“Charlie, do you remember that night, when we got out of Farewell?” Becky asked after a while. Some half eaten jerky on her hand. “What was that like?”

“Yeah. I remember.” The blonde responded mid chew.

“The highways were all uh… choked up with cars, so many people, all on the move. Thinkin’ that if they could go fast enough, that they’d outrun what was comin’. But the thing is that no one could see what was comin’, no one could move fast enough, Charlie.” She paused to take a drink from her water bottle and put the remaining jerky away. “So by the time they said, ‘Fuck it’ and started walking, and then runnin’ it was too late.”

“Too late...yeah.” The blonde nodded.

“And I remember, watchin’ the freaks...watchin’ them all come, thousands of them...and all those people trying to escape get swallowed up.” She continued, a far away look in her eyes, as if she was back there again. “When you see a thing like that you know it’s only a matter of time before it’s our turn.” She turns to look at Charlotte, the flames from the fire reflecting in her eyes. “And nothin’ is gonna stop it, Chucky, not a Goddamn thing. But...but you know why we keep going Charlie?”

“No...I don’t” 

“Because what the hell else are we gonna do? Huh? Give up? Fuck no!”

**Past**

“Becks.”

She hears her name called out. She’s been sitting in the same bench for God knows how long, but from amount of snow she feels on herself she assumes it’s been a while. 

“Alexa says you haven’t gone back in after she woke up.” Charlotte walked towards her and stood in front of her, her hands tucked in her coat, a scarf around her neck.

“I’m just… you know… takin’ some air.” She says shrugging slightly. Playing with a loose thread from her jeans.

“She woke up four hours ago, how much air could you possibly need?” The blonde girl says seriously. “Wanna tell me the real reason why you are not with her, after being by her side for the past two days?.”  She tilted her head to the side in question.

Becky looked at her quickly and then averted her eyes.

“You feel guilty.” The blonde said softly.

“What?... me… pfftt.. no…” Becky tried to refute. Unsuccessfully.

“Yeah. I don’t believe you. You get this look in your face when you are blaming yourself for something. So...am I right?”

Becky sighs nodding. “Maybe.”

“Wanna tell me why?”

“Bad things… keep happenin’ when she’s around me.” Becky says quietly. “First her parents get pissed at her for moving here and getting engaged with me… I mean they literally stopped talking to her because of me. And...and.. then she gets hurt, while ridin’ with me, on my bike.”

“Ok, so first of all, it’s not your fault her family are all a bunch of pretentious rich assholes, that is something that you cannot change and you cannot control. I should know, I’m the daughter of Ric Flair biggest rich pretentious asshole there is. Secondly, Becks… there is no way, no way you could possibly know some car would slip on ice and hit your bike. Accidents happen.” 

“She was in a comma for three days, Charlie. It wouldn't have happened had we taken her car.”  Becky shakes her head and one of her hands goes to remove her beanie and shake it free of snow.

“What do you control the weather now?” Charlotte said with a small smile on her face. “Becks, that car slipping could’ve happen while you were on in her car or in an uber. There are things you can’t change, remember what Finn used to say?” The blonde moved to sit besides the redhead. “The past is said and done, the future doesn’t exist yet, the only thing that matters…”

“Is today.” Becky finishes the sentence.

“Exactly. So you see, you can’t change what already happened, and you can’t take responsibility for what the universe decides to throw at you. All we can do is keep going.”

“Keep going.” The red head repeats.

“Yes. Because if not, then what else are going to do? Give up? Fuck no.” Charlotte says smiling. “So… you good?” She stares at Becky, receiving a smile and a nod from her friend."Good, now go talk to your fiancé."

**Present**

“So, what’s the plan?” Charlotte ask from her place. She was laying her back against a rock, her arm, limp by her side.  “Hunter said he’ll kill you...us...if he ever saw you again.”

“I’m hopin’ he’d forget.” Becky said standing up from her place, getting a few supplies on her backpack, leaving enough space to bring the antibiotics back. “Hey. You don’t get to sleep, Charlie, it’s the middle of the night and freakers...”

“Right, right...I’m up.” The blonde said sitting up straight and opening her eyes.

Lost Lake Lodge was once a place full of life, sitting by a lake, it gave for a great view of the mountains, the forest and wildlife all around it. Becky and Alexa had been there for a few days after their wedding, the surrounding area of the lake and mountains being a great place to have all kinds of plants and flowers to grow there. Needless to say Alexa was 100% on board with spending part of their honeymoon there.

After escaping from Farewell, both Becky and Charlotte rode together with Sasha, Bayely and a few other members of the Evolution biker gang. Eventually they came across Lost Lake and Hunter, who was a former member of a different camp but for unknown reasons left and started his own. Sasha and Bayley decided to stay, settle roots there and help around, while Becky and Charlotte they didn’t want to settle anywhere, they wanted to keep drifting and live life the way they wanted to. Though if you ask Charlotte, the only reason they did that was because of Becky, the blonde knew her friend would not be able to settle anywhere after what happened with Alexa, after losing her home, so drifters they became.

Charlotte once made a promise to always stay by Becky’s side. The redhead had been there for her in some of her hardest time and vice versa. The trust they had for each other could not be compared to anything, plus Charlotte felt a debt towards the redhead, at the end of the day the only reason Alexa and her were separated was because of Charlotte, because she was hurt. So Charlotte made sure to keep her promise. So if Becky wanted to leave, then they would leave.

After being in the camp for a few months, it was safe to say Becky knew her way through it pretty well, she also knew it was easier to sneak in from an old dock on the south, than from the main gate at the front. The only bad part about this camp, at least at this moment in time was the guards. Because the camp was closer to the ripper’s territory, everyone had to be on high alert.

Slowly but surely Becky made her way to where the infirmary was, a two story cabin, close to the main gate. She wiggled her knife on the door the get it open and made her way inside, she made her way to a small cabinet by the bathroom which thankfully had no lock and opened it to put away some antibiotics in her bag, unfortunately as soon as she was closing her backpack she heard steps behind her.

“Shit!” She whispered, closing her eyes. “Hi Sasha, hey Bayley.” She said after she turned around. “I don’t want to be a trouble so if you can just step aside I’ll show my way out…”

“No. What the hell are you doing in my infirmary.” Bayley asked, taking a step closer.

Becky pulled her own gun out and pointed it at Sasha.

“Oh you are gonna shoot me now?”  Sasha asks, “Oh wait, you have a code right? You don’t shoot unarmed people unless you have to.” Sasha says with a smirk, before taking out her gun and pointing it at the redhead. “Well you have to.” 

“Sash, don’t”  Bayley warns the purple haired girl, both neither woman listens. 

After staring and each other for what felt like forever, Becky sighs and lowers her gun. “Ah shit. Okay, look just let me explain.”

“Check what’s in the bag, Bayley.” She nods her head towards the bag on Becky’s left hand.

“What are you selling narcotics for Stephanie now? You know when you brought Nikki here, I thought you had changed. But clearly you haven’t. You are still doing whatever you need to get credits don’t you. Good or bad is all the same to you.”

“It’s not narcotics. It’s antibiotics.” Bayley interrupts them.

“What?” Sasha turns to look at Bayley briefly. “Explain.”

“Charlie’s… um...sick. She’s got blood poisoning.” Becky says seriously. “I didn’t know what to do and had no other place to go.” She finished shrugging.

“Blood poisoning. What happened?” Sasha asks, reluctant to believe her.

“Does it matter?” Her counterpart asks seriously. Making Sasha stop advancing on Becky.

“I fucked up.” The redhead says quietly. 

“Bring her in.” Bayley continues. “Go and get her, bring her here.”

“Bayley, no we can't do that.” Sasha says her gun still pointing at Becky.

“Yes, we can.” Bayley insists. Putting herself in front of the gun. “I don’t care what happened in the past or if Hunter wants to punish me, we don’t abandon our own.” She takes a step closer at Sasha. “And one of our own is sick. Put. The. Gun. Down.” She said, her hands pushing the other girls arm down. The other girls seemed to hesitate a little, but ends up nodding and walks out of the cabin without a word.

"Sooo... how you doin'?" Becky asks casually.

Bayley rolls her eyes and points to the door. "Just go get Charlotte."

\----

“Which way we headed?” Sasha asks once they are both getting on her bike.

“Remember that small makeshift camp we did when we first rode into the valley?” Becky ask, getting on behind Sasha. The latter nodding in confirmation. “So uh… how’s Nikki? Are you… going to take me to see her?” she ask once they start riding.

“No.” Sasha deadpans.

“What? Oh c’mon Sasha why not?” 

“I can’t. She’s not here. A few days ago Corbin assigned her to a scavenge run.  She and three others headed to the Rogue camp to look for supplies. They came back without her..”

“Wait. You are saying they just left her? Out in the shit?”

“No left anyone. They said she ran off. We can’t force people to stay, Becky. You should know that better than anyone.” Sasha finished as soon as they arrive to Charlotte’s location.

“Who’s there?!” The blonde asks, her shotgun ready to fire.

“It’s just me, Chucky.” 

“Step back!” The blonde yells, she was looking worse, shivering, a few drops of sweat running down her neck.

“Hey, Charlotte.” Sasha says from behind Becky, hers hands up and walking slowly towards the blonde.

“Sash?”

“That’s right. How you doin’ there, blondie?” She asks, crouching in front of Charlotte.

“Just peachy.” She answers weakly. 

“Yeah. I bet.” She says chuckling. Then turns to Becky. “Still doesn’t give you the right to steal our shit.”

“What was I supposed to do?” Becky as defensively

“I don’t know. Ask.” Sasha answers. She shakes her head and chuckles. “Look at you, the biker girls, crawling back for help… if Hunter let’s you.” She sighs. “Help me get her on the bike.”


	7. Playing All Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo' drop an emoji in the comments to at least know there's people reading this.

There is always a bad apple in every bunch and when it comes to Lost Lake Camp, Baron Corbin was it. He is currently head of security at the camp, why? Becky doesn’t know, the dude is at odds with everyone at the camp due to him abusing his authority, at least he was at the time of her leaving, she’s pretty sure that hasn’t changed.

Not to mention he is constantly questioning Triple H’s authority, mainly about his treaty with the rippers, part of this included to exchange supplies regularly with them, and they stay away from each other’s territory. If both parts comply, no blood is shed.  Corbin believes this treaty will not work, he believes it to be a weakness as in his opinion rippers are no longer human so they will inevitably betray the treaty, even if everything seems to be working so far.

So really it comes at no surprise when Becky hears him trying to convince Hunter to turn them away and send them back into the shit as soon as both her and Sasha make their way into the main building of the lodge.

“You cannot believe a word of what she’s going to say.” Corbin is pacing back and forth in front of Hunter’s desk, where the man was sitting waiting for Becky’s arrival. “Bayley is soft.”

As soon as both women set a foot inside the building, Corbin’s voice seems to get louder, immediately pointing at Becky. “Hunter, we don’t have enough for those who pull their own weight let alone a Goddamn cripple.” 

“She’s not a cripple, she can work, she...” The redhead immediately comes into her friend’s defense.  _ ‘Fucking Corbin’ _ she thinks.

“I say, we throw them out on their asses.” Corbin interrupts, once again turning to look at Hunter, a smirk on his face.

“Hunter, that is  _ not _ who we are.” Sasha intervenes, walking closer to the leader’s desk.

“Jesus, listen to you…” Corbin scuffs shaking his head at Sasha. “And you…” He says pointing at Becky, taking a few steps closer to her. “Are you finally tired of being Stephanie’s little bitch, finally? Huh?”

“Baron, stop.” Sasha tries to step in before things get out of hand, which knowing how impulsive the redhead is, will not take long.

“Don’t call me that!” The tall man snaps. 

“Oh, I’m pretty tired alright…” Becky says pulling her gun out and pointing it at Corbin, the latter doing the same thing.

“See! You know who the fuck this girl is, and you know what she’s…” 

“Alright, ENOUGH!” The older man yells. Having seen and heard enough of the same old arguments and disagreements that come with the redhead. “You, shut the hell up.” He walks round his desk and walks towards Corbin, his left hand pointing towards him, while the right hand points towards the redhead and her gun. “And you, put that shit away.” 

Becky breathes deeply hesitating for a few seconds but ultimately listening to him and lowering her gun, placing it back at its holster.  She continues to take deep breaths and turns away from the other people in the room walking a few steps away trying to calm down. Getting angry will do Charlotte no good.

“H, she was the one who brought me the girl…” 

“I know.” Hunter says loudly, his hand in front of him as signal to tell Sasha to shut up. “And I also know, what kind of woman she is, what she’s done.” He continues turning to look fully at the other man who was still pointing the gun at the girl. “Has she done any worse than you? Than Sasha? How about me?” He pushes the man’s arm down lowering his gun. “We’ve all been out in the shit, Corbin. We’ve all done things we are not proud of.” 

“We need another rider.” Sasha tells him after a few second of silence. 

“I’ll do whatever it takes.” Becky says seriously, looking into Hunter’s eyes. 

Corbin only scuffs and shakes his head. “Sure, Hunter. Whatever you say. I’m on board.” 

The older man sighs and walks away from the group briefly stopping by Becky’s side. “Walk with me.” 

At this the redhead shares a look with Sasha and turns to follow the other man outside.

“Sasha told me you stopped running for Stephanie.” Hunter asks as soon as they are outside of the main building. “Sent that survivor here instead.”

“Sorry I lied to you, before I mean, about doing runs for Stephanie.” Becky follows the man, while looking at her surroundings, she can see why this lodge was pretty famous, the surrounding landscape was reason enough. “That wasn’t the reason we left. 

“I know.” Hunter answers simply. “How long you’ve been drifting? You and Charlotte?” 

“I’m not sure, time gets lost after a while.”  She shrugs. “Hunter… you know I can’t promise to stay right? I mean… I meant what I said I will do whatever it takes while we are here, but as soon as Charlie is ready we are ridin’ north.” She figures it’s better to be honest now that latter, she doesn’t want a repeat of what happened the last time she left.

“North huh? What’s up there?” Both reach a small dock by the lake, one of the camp’s survivor sitting there with a fishing rod. 

“I dunno” She shrugs. “Not entirely sure, but I have a friend in a camp there, near Smith Rocks… Charlie’s never been there, anyway.”  She sighs. “Got a lot of ghosts down here. It’s time to move on.

“Fresh start, eh? I can respect that. Now go on, I think Bayley needed your help.” He waved Becky off and sat on a lawn chair by the dock.

Standing outside the infirmary, Becky’s hand hovers over the handle, she’s nervous about being alone with Bayley. With Sasha she knows where she stands, she know the girl is mad at her for leaving, specially considering the reason she thinks is why Becky left. But Bayley, she hasn’t seen nor talk the girl for a while, so she doesn’t know what to expect. She rolls her shoulders back and takes a deep breath before finally walking in.

“Becky.” Bayley says as soon as she walks in.

“Hey, Bayls. You doin’ alright?” She asks casually. 

“I’m good, how about you?” She tilts her head in question, interrupting Becky as soon as the other girl opens her mouth. “And don’t lie, I know you. So no bullshit.”

Becky releases a breath, nodding. “I’m well… you know… just driftin’... um survivin’. Helping Charlie.” She pauses for a second. “Um.. sorry?” She mumbles, before straightening her posture. “Yes. I’m sorry, about… you know… lying and well… leaving.”

Bayley crossed her arms and sighs. “I know you were lying about leaving, Becks. I also know why you really left and why you are stubborn about not planting roots anywhere, why I don’t understand is why did you lie? Why couldn’t you just talk to me? To us?” She says referring to herself and Sasha.

“And say what Bayley? ‘I’m sorry I can’t stay because I’m still not over my wife’s death and the thought of settling roots anywhere without her seems wrong and only seems to increase my guilt towards aforementioned wife’s death’.” 

“Yes, Becky. It was that simple, you didn’t have to go acting out towards everyone, wanting to kill and/or hit everything that moved. “ Bayley says frustrated.

“Sorry.” The redhead mumbles. “I’ve never been good at talkin’” 

“Could’ve fooled me.” Bayley grins. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad your stubborn ass is still alive and well.” She finishes and pulls her in for a hug.

“Still a hugger I see.” Becky says as she awkwardly holds the other woman back. “And thanks, for helping with Charlie.” She says sincerely.  

“Tattoo or not, she’s a horsewoman. We help our own.”  

“Right...sooo… Trips said you needed my help with somethin’?” Becky said as she pulls away from the other girl. 

“Yeah. We are low on everything.” She sighs. “We need more meds, more bandages, instruments, sterile gloves. Here’s a list of what I need.” 

“Mm.. long list.” Becky says reading through it. 

“Yep.” The hugger nods. “There’s a small town a few miles from here, Sherman’s, you should be able to find some of what I need there.” 

“Got it.” She mockingly saluted and turned to walk towards the door. “Be back in a jiffy.”

\-----------------------------------------

_ “Lynch, you there?” _

_ “Um, Becky Lynch?” _

_ “Is this the right channel?” _

Becky was halfway back to the camp after getting rid of the freakers nests on Sherman’s Town after getting Bayley´s things when a very familiar was contacting her.

“Zayn?”  She questions. “That you?”

_ “It is you, good. Meet me at Buffalo Bridge, now.” _

“Whoa! imma need more than that buddy.”

_ “Meet me there. Now.” _

_ “Zayn out.” _

“Asshole” Becky mumbles, changing directions on her bike. 

“Alright...I’m here.” 

“Jesus...don’t...don’t sneak up on me like that” Zayn turns around, startled.

¨Bit jumpy are we?” Said Becky with a smirk. “Did you found anything about Alexa, the woman I put in your chopper?”

“Nothing.” 

“Nothing?!” Becky walks closer to him.

The man puts his hands up and takes a few steps back. “Wait, wait, wait...it’s gonna take some time okay?” Becky stops advancing from him, listening. “I’m risking my neck here. If anyone back at HQ finds out? Those guys with the guns there...”

“You are all on the same team, aren't you Sami?”

“It...looks that way. But it’s not. “ He sighs. “I need you to trust me and I need your help.” He pushes something into Becky’s hand. “It’s a wavelength and GPS tracker, I need you to place it in the next helicopter you see…”

“Sami, what the hell?”

“Look! If I’m risking my life to find out about whatever her name is…”

“Alexa!”

“Right, Alexa. Then you will need to do something for me alright?”  Zayn turns to look at the distance where a chopper is descending “I gotta go, but keep that radio close. I’ll contact you.”

“Zayn wait!” She yells. “Damn it! The radio is always close, it has been since I first found you you son a bitch.” She continues to yell angrily.

\------

Later that same day Becky was finally back at Hunter’s, she was laying in her bunk speaking with Zayn about what she saw earlier that day on a NERO research site. 

_ “Like I said, most of these stops are outings that are not in the books, no one here knows what they are doing.” _

“Well shouldn’t you know? I mean don’t you work for’em Sami, you do wear one of their fancy pocket protector suits.”

_ “Pocket protector really? I have a fucking phd.”  _

“So? Doesn’t make you any less of an asshole, certainly does mean you are workin’ for them.”

_ “It still doesn't mean I know everything, look all I know is that every chopper that you see has different sites, different instructions to follow, and no one knows what they are only the people on each chopper does. _

“Instructions?” She asks, sitting up on her bed. “You mean like carvin’ out the guts of a freak, while it was still alive?”

_ “Like you are any better? The drifters? Don’t you kill the infected for money or whatever it is you barter with?” _

“Well.. yeah. But I don’t carve them open while they are still alive and hear them scream.”

_ “Whatever.” _ Sami sighs.  _ “I’m uploading the data to a secure server, I’ll keep in touch.” _

“Zayn what…”

_ “You don’t need to ask, I’m already going through the evacuees records, see where they might’ve sent them. Zayn out.” _

“Fucking Zayn.” Becky mumbles. She hears someone knocking on her door and only swears for a few second about not having one moment of peace before opening it.

“What?” She ask annoyed before realizing who it was. “Bayley.” 

“Hey.”

“Everything alright?” She asks after seeing her friends solemn face. “Is Charlie alright?” She continued, trying to walk past her, only to be stopped by the other woman’s body.

“Wait.”  

“Bayley...Is Charlie alright?” Becky asks seriously.

The other woman sighs and shakes her heard. “No. She’s not.” 

“What do you mean?”

“The antibiotics...they are not enough, they are never enough!” The woman says frustrated, before taking a deep breath to calm down. “You didn’t hear this from me, but maybe you should talk to Corbin.”

“Bay.. what?” Becky asks confused.

“Just go talk to him, Becks.”

\---------

“Is your friend going to be okay?” Corbin is sitting on a lawn chair by his cabin. He has a beer on one hand and the other was resting on his leg.

“Sure.” Becky tries to sound confident but given the circumstances she doubts she is successful.  “She just needs a few days.”

“Sure.” Corbin says with a side smile. “Listen, a few months back there was this drifter who came in, said all kinds of crazy shit, about how he was working on the airport back in Farewell when shit went down. One night they were waiting for a plane from Portland than never showed up. They were doing a haul for the Red Cross.”

“Red Cross?”  She tilts her head in question.

“The Red Cross.” Baron confirms. “Medicine, bandages, gloves… antibiotics.”  He looks at Becky, already knowing the redhead won’t need much convincing after listening to his plan.

He stands up for his chair and walks inside of his cabin, gesturing for Becky to do the same.

“So this drifter, says he’s working the control tower when the plane disappears from the radar, right about here.” He points at a circled location in his worn out map illuminated by the candles on his desk. “Mount Washington, says it was controlled crashed or whatever, came down intact.”

“And you haven’t send no one there why?”  The redhead crosses her arms and leans on the table.

“Because the old man won’t have it.” He says, doing the same thing as Becky.

“Why wouldn’t Hunt...oh...rippers.” 

“That’s right.” Baron says smirking and then turns around to the map. “Everything west of the Iron Ridge here...belongs to Kadlec and her merry band a’ bald headed freak-a-likes.”

“Fucking rippers.”

“Yep. So if you go over there and you get caught, you head north. Otherwise Hunter’s treaty with Rest in Peace goes down just like that.” He says snapping his fingers.

Becky sighs holding the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “So why are you telling me this?”

“Just thought you should know...last time I checked you were not a part of this camp.” He shrugs. “You do what gotta do.” He says leading her out of his cabin. “And Becky, I didn’t tell you shit. Remember that.” 

\-----

“Corbin, I’m at the border, how much time do I got?” Becky asks. After thinking about it for a night, Becky convinced herself that she had to do this. If getting those antibiotics meant helping Charlotte then she’d do whatever it takes and if she can do it without alerting anyone the better.

_ “I don’t know. All I know is me and the boys a card game tonight and it’s going to take all night.” _

_ “ _ So until morning...got it.”

Finding the crash site wasn’t difficult, she encountered a couple of freakers, couple of rippers, you know, the usual. What she wasn’t expecting was to find the place pretty much picked clean.

“Corbin, what the hell?” 

_ “Becky, what’s wrong?” _

“The place is picked clean.” She says angrily through her radio, she starts walking around to see if there is anything she can salvage, one by one she starts going through the crates and picking was she could find.

_ “Rippers.” _

“Right. fucking rippers. I’ll see what I can salvage, meet you at the border later. Lynch out.”

She scouted the place and she was actually surprised by what she could find, it was a decent amount of medical stuff, she was sure Bayley would need it, but was even better was the amount of antibiotics she found, she just hoped it was enough for Charlie and that she was not too late.

“Wait! it’s Becky, behind her!” Corbin instructed his men to shoot at the rippers following her once she got close to the border, once she was on the safe side she stop to catch her breath.

“So? where you able to find anything?” He asked once he ordered one of his men to keep watch. 

“What was left of it, yeah.” She said nodding, leaning forward on her bike.

“I heard gunshots, what’s going on?” Sasha stops beside them, suspicion in her eyes.

“Had a running with a few ripper, but I handled it.” Answered Corbin.

“You handled it, what..” she trails off as she looks at the back of Becky’s bike and sees a crate in place, with red cross marks on it and shakes her head. “I should've known.”

“Should’ve known what?” Corbin ask daringly, “Jesus Sasha, who’s running security here?”

“You know I ask myself that shit everyday.” She responds getting off her bike.

“Whatever I’m done here.” 

“Sasha, what brings you here?” Becky asks casually as Corbin walks away.

“Bayley asked me to come and get you.” 

“Why? Is Charlie alright?” She asked worried, straightening her back.

“I don’t know, but Bayley asked me to find you, imagine my surprise when I knew you were heading up here.” Sasha walked towards Becky and pointed at the crate on her bike “Now I know why.”

“I dunno what you are talkin’ about.” Becky says clearing her throat.

“Oh no? The crashed site, the medical supplies? It’s not big secret, Becks. Hunter was negotiating with Kadlec, making a deal so our camp would split it with the rippers.” 

“Oh bullshit.” The redhead scuffs. “I was there, half that cargo hold was already looted. Tracks from the crash site all head south, you know what’s on the south? rippers. I’ve dealin’ with the rippers for months, you can’t trust a thing they say.” 

“Did Corbin put you up to this?” Sasha asked, already knowing you couldn’t trust a word or what that man said.

“What? No. Like you said it’s not a big secret.” She shrugged.

“Corbin has been trying to pick a fight with the rippers for for months. Guess it’s lucky you came along to do it for him.” She said as she walked back and got on her bike. “Let’s go.”

Becky could only sigh and started her bike to follow Sasha back to camp.

\--------------

“Charlotte, Charlotte, you need to stay still”  

As soon as both Sasha and Becky walk into the infirmary they see Charlotte trashing on the bed holding her arm and Bayley trying to keep her still.

“Bayley, what’s going on?”

She turns around to look at them. “Go and hold her.” She orders Sasha. 

“What the hell’s going on?” Becky asked confused and worried. “What are you doing?”

“Listen, Becks. We need to this and we need to this right now.” She tells the redhead trying to remain calm.

“Do what? I don’t understa…” The look on Bayleys eyes and the medical equipment she sees by Charlotte’s bed is enough to know what the brunette means. “No...No, No! There’s no way...You cannot do this to her!”

“Becky, listen to me!” She grabbed her friend by the arms to keep her from pacing and looked at her directly in the eyes. “Antibiotics will save her life, but nothing on this earth is gonna save her arm. So I need you to help me right now or you can just say Charlotte goodbye.”

“Ok…” The redhead mumbles under her breath and closed her eyes to prepare herself. “Ok..alright…” shaking her head she takes a deep breath and walks towards Charlotte.

“Hey Chucky...I just need to you to relax for a bit alright.” She turns to look at Bayley and nods. The redhead places one of her hands on Charlotte’s left arm and the other on her right shoulder, while Sasha holds her by her legs.

“Ok. One, Two…” Bayley grabs her knife and start counting down. “Three.”

\---------------

Bayley is by Charlotte’s bed bandaging her arm, while Sasha is sitting on a chair by the window and Becky is sitting down by the wall, leaning her backs on it, both a little pale and still in shock at what they just witnessed.

Bayley approaches both of them, placing a hand on Sasha’s shoulder and softly rubbing her thumb back and forth on it. “Hey, you did good in there.” She says softly.

Sasha only sighs and shakes her head slightly. “When I was in high school I thought ‘Hmm maybe I should be a mechanical engineer. Or should I be a surgeon?’ I guess I should’ve been a surgeon.” She says, making Bayley chuckle.

“And you…” She then crouches beside Becky. “You saved Charlotte’s life today, you know that right?”

“Yeah…” She answers seriously. “I don’t think she’s gonna see it that way.”

“I think she will.” Bayley says confidently. “Gotta go give her, her IV drip.” With that she stands up and leaves.

“Becky, Get out here!” She hears her name being called by Hunter from outside of the building. Becky releases a breath, before standing up to face the man.

“I heard what you did.” Hunter says as soon as she walks out. Corbin by his side.

“I wasn’t about to let her die.” She responds tired. Not feeling like defending herself at the moment.

“Hunter, let it go. It’s done.” Corbin says, standing in front of the older man.

“I know that.” He answers, pushing Corbin to the side. “Charlotte gonna live?”

“I dunno.”

“But the rippers saw you, followed you back.”

Becky closes her eyes and nods.

“When Kadlec finds out about this, there’s gonna be hell to pay.” Hunter says raising his voice.

“Kadlec can go fuck herself!” Becky answers, already done with being scolded and yelled at by the older man.

“You are writing checks with other people’s blood.” The older man shakes his head at Becky and turns to walk away. “I hope you are good with that.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, in the game, during the plane crash part you actually do have to kill a freaker but like a bigger, stronger one, called a breaker. A boss fight if you will. I do remove stuff like that and other fighting scenes as to not prolong this more than I have to. 
> 
> Also now that Zayn is getting in contact with Becky, a clue about Alexa's whereabouts will get to Becky soon, so don't dispear, our beloved redhead is till on the look out for her wife's destiny.


	8. Outta The Darkness

“I’ve uh… been doing some thinking about what you said…’bout doing something to help the camp. Make a difference ya’ know?” 

It’s been a few days and both Becky and Hunter have calmed down, the redhead on her side has been doings runs for Sasha, plus keeping a close eye on Charlotte. She’s also done a couple more field spying for Zayn which unsurprisingly is turning old fast.  But she has to admit there are a couple of things she has learned about the freakers while doing so, thing that make help to at least slow them down.

“I’m listening.” 

“Do you have a couple minutes, I need to show you something.” 

“Yeah. Guess I can spare you a minute or two.” He says seriously already making his way down the stairs from the lodge’s main building. “Where are we heading?”

“North Cave, you remember how you told me you use to live up there when you were a kid?” 

“I remember, it was those caves that brought in the tourists, the lava flows making a connecting path through all of the damn caves in this place.” They pass through a couple of freaker that are stuck in the mud and the older mans simply yells for one of the his people to take care of them. 

As they both get closer to the highway, Becky ushers Hunter to crouch behind a fallen tree as a horde of what looks like hundreds of freakers make their way down the road.

“Jesus Christ.” Hunter coughs and covers his nose. “This is why you brought me out here? To smell a buncha freaks?” He says between coughs.

“Nope, I brought you here to follow them.” She says she tries to take a step towards the road when she feels a hand holding her back.

“Following them? Are you crazy?”  He asks, still from his place behind the tree.

“Just…come on.” She pushes his hand away and slowly and cautiously crosses the highway and starts hiking the mountain still following the horde from off the road. Hunter has no other option but follow through.

“So you remember telling me about how the tourists use to flood up from California in the summer, choke off highway 97 and the I-5 freeway?” She asks still making their way up to the main cave entrance.

“Yeah. In July those people smelled as bad as the freaks.” 

“Well you were right ‘bout one thing, Trips.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Okay, Trips… I mean Hunter.” She cleared her throat. “I think these hordes are the reason why we can’t get their numbers down, I mean think about it, H. People like me, like Charlotte, like Sasha, like all your riders back at the camp how many freakers do you think we have killed huh? And still we are not making a dent, more seem to appear out of nowhere and I think I know the reason why.”

“What do you mean?”  The man asks genuinely curious.

“It’s this hordes, every night a steady stream of them make their way down from the Santiam Highway, thousands of freaks, pouring into Lost Lake valley, north of the Cascades. And as the make their way in, a few freaks get scattered or something happens that just like that, freaks everywhere, as far as the eye can see.”

“And the caves? What does that got do with them?”  The both of them stop and hide behind some rocks by the cave entrance watching as the horde goes inside.

“We figure out a way to stop them from coming in and we reduce their numbers, and how do we do it? We seal off the caves. I mean they go in during the day and hibernate or whatever the hell they do. So if we can seal them off place some dynamite, there, there and there” She points to three specific places in the cave entrance. “We bring a whole lotta rock down and these freakers have no place to sleep.” 

Hunter stays quiet for a moment coming out of their hiding place as soon as the last of the freakers seem to disappear into the cave, he seems to think it over “Yeah or maybe this trail of piss and shit goes stale and no more freaks start coming.” He finally says nodding. 

“Alright...you got my attention. Let’s head back.”

\-----------

“I’ll head up to check up on Charlotte, thanks for your time.” Becky says as soon as they get into camp.

“Hey wait.” Hunter calls out. “This idea of yours… it’s a good one, but we are going to need a whole lot of TNT to make it happen.” 

“You said you wanted help to make Lost Lake safer. This is how.”

Once again Hunter seems to think things through for a few second before nodding. “Alright go check on Charlotte and then come meet me at the bridge in a couple of minutes, I know where we can find some.” 

With that he walks aways, leaving Becky by herself with a small smile on her face, maybe just maybe the old man is finally trusting her.

Becky walks in the infirmary to see Bayley sitting up by Charlotte’s bed, talking.

“How’s it going, Charlie?” She asks getting closer.

“Well Becks I don’t know about you...” She says with a mischievous look on her eyes. “But I could use a hand.” She wiggles her left arm up and down while chuckling.

Both Becky and Bayley can’t help but do the same and laugh at the blonde’s humor. 

“Good one,” Becky says with a big smile she then clears her throat and turns to Bayley. “But with all seriousness, doc, will she able to play the piano after this is all over?” 

“Becky, oh my God!” 

“Good one, sister!”

“Alright, I gotta go, but I’ll see ya’ later Chucky.” She walks out of the infirmary and gestures for Bayley to do the same.

“As you can see she’ll be fine, her fever is almost gone.” Bayley says smiling.

“That’s great but uh… take care of her please.” Becky pleads. “We both know how she is, she won’t admit there’s somethin’ wrong.”

“I know, Becks.” The other woman nods. “Corbin is having her work at the farm, it’s not much but it’ll give her something to do. And about what I said before, she really owes you her life.”

“Nah, Bay. I owe her mine.” Becky answers sincerely.  “I’ll check on her later.”

\--------------------

“So there we go right because Trips says the TNT records were stored by the commissioner or whatever at Sherman’s and...and Hunter leads me to this preschool that’s locked up but get this he has a key and as soon as he opens the door, I swear Lexi, that smell? I don’t think I´ll be able to forget it there were bodies everywhere and then Hunter says it wasn’t the freakers but themselves.” She takes a drink of her coffee and continues to rearrange the flowers around the stone.

“So he was a part of this camp before Lost Lake and I guess they all got selfish or somethin´ that they decided that killing everyone around was a good idea, apparently everyone at the camp thought that so that’s why they are all dead but Hunter of course.” 

She’s finally done with the flowers and sit back on the ground, her knees up to her chest.

“Apart from that did I tell ya’ about this woman I met? You would’ve liked her, she was a bit shy it seems but also funny. She had it rough ya’ know. Anyway, she had been hidin’ in a small house by that little town north of Belknap… you remember the one? With the little church that we got married in.” She chuckles. “Because you wanted some place rustic.” 

She sniffles and clears her throat before continuing. “So I get to her and I uh.. take to Stephanie’s and I know...I know you don’t like Stephanie...well...you wouldn’t have liked Stephanie but she keeps her people safe, only she didn’t this time. Rippers came took some people, Lisa was once of ‘em.” She got quieter as she remember the moment she went and rescue her from the ripper camps. “And God, Lexi, If she was messed up before, I think the ripper’s might’ve gotten into her head.” 

She sighed. “And then there’s Charlie, you know I brought her to Lost Lake to get help but she um… she lost her arm anyway and now...now we are stuck, not riding North anytime soon but guess that’s good news for you, you get to keep me around for longer.” 

She takes one last sip of her coffee and stand up dusting off the dirt from her jeans. “Gotta go, love. But I’ll be back soon.”

\---------------

Becky was walking out of her cabin after finally having a good day to sleep when some asshole decided to ruin her morning. Or at least try to.

“Lynch!”

“Corbin.” She says with a fake smile. “So nice to see you this fine morning.”

“There are freakers stuck in the mud, I need you to kill them, take them out, and get them to the burn pile.” 

“Mmm… kinda busy, buddy. Can’t help ya´” 

“Hey! Everybody’s gotta work, so do what I say if you don’t want to get back into the shit.” He threatens.

“Didn’t you hear the woman, Corbin?” Sasha thankfully interrupts. “She’s busy.”

“You don’t give the jobs around here.”

“Except I do, Corbin. As much as I hate sharing the job with you I do get a say in what people do.” She says with a smirk. “Now I talked to Hunter, and I gotta go out in the shit so she’s coming with.” 

“Like I said, I’m busy.” Becky says with her fake smile.

“Pfft..” He scuffed. “Whatever.” Rolling her eyes he walks away and Becky turns back to the purple woman.

“So...where we goin’?”

The both of them start walking to their bikes while Sasha explains. “Well, believe or not we used to have electricity here, but it exploded a few weeks ago. But see we haven’t had power for the last two years, but the transformer on the lines they all check out.”

“Okay.”  Becky said slowly.

“I want to go up north to check the hydro-dam see if maybe I can see why it shut down and if there is a way to get it back up.” Sasha said getting on her bike. “And you are coming with me because you know the area better that anyone.” 

Becky look at Sasha with a smirk. “So you need my help.” 

Sasha sighs. “Yes, Becky I need your help.”

“Well, well, how the turntables.” She says still smirking.

“Ugh.” She scuffs. “Just get on your bike.”

“Alrighty then, but honestly though would you have shot me in the face the other night?” Becky asked getting on her own bike. 

“No.” The other girl answers simply. “I would’ve take you outside first and then shot you in the face, wouldn’t want Bayley to get mad at be over spilled blood in her infirmary.”

“O...kay.” Becky nodded. “Alrighty then, let’s go.”

\------------------------

“Alright. Seems clear.” Becky says getting of her bike.

“Cool, now come on, I need to check the outflow.” Sasha gets of her bike to and heads down a small hill, leading to the river. 

“Soo… you and Bayley?” Becky asks casually trying to make conversation.

“Yeah. What about it?” 

“Just wondering when did that happen? I mean always knew there was something there ya know?” As the reach the river, Sasha get over a small concrete border to look at the stream.

“Fairly new. Nothing serious.” She answers before changing the subject. “No, no, no this is isn’t right.” She says looking at the outflow. “There should a stronger current coming from there, and do you hear that?” 

“What?” Becky asks confused.

“Exactly, if the turbines were working, we would hear them humming from here.” Sasha sighs. “Let’s go check the turbines.” She hops off the boarder and the both of them start walking back up to the hydro plant. 

“When this whole shit started and we were still riding together I thought maybe keeping my distance was a good way to stay safe.” Sasha goes further into the story of her and Bayley, at the end of the day Becky is like a sister, regardless of the shit she did she still trusts her. 

“But then we got to camp and it made me see that this was a way to start a new life you know, and Bayley well... she thought the same thing. And you were...well you and Charlotte wasn’t going to leave you alone. So we decided to stay, stopped riding with you guys and we made a new life.”  The made their way towards a big metal cylinder and Sasha placed her hand on it gesturing Becky to do the same. “You feel that?” 

“Um.. am I supposed to feel something?”

“Exactly, if the water was flowing, these turbines would be vibrating.” She stays quiet for a second thinking about what the next move would be. "Alright, come on, we are going all the way up to the top.”

Becky clueless as she is follows her friend without question. “You say it’s not serious but it looks pretty serious to me.”  

“Things move fast in this world now a days. What can I say?” Sasha said shrugging. “She made me see keeping your distance was a stupid idea.” She gives a pointed look to Becky and the latter only shrugs. “So these pipes, they are called the penstock pressure brings the water from the reservoir and travels through those pipes.” She signals to two big pipes running down in front of them. 

“Oh look at you using you fancy engineering degree.” Becky says. “Who knew it would still be useful after the apocalypse.”

“Not everyone chose to go to the army after high school.” Sasha says once they are on top, leaning over the boarder to see below at the water.  “Speaking of…” She says as she starts removing her clothes. 

“What are you doing?” Becky asks turning away.

“I need to check below the water, see if any of the pipes are clogged.” She finishes with her clothes, leaving her only in her bra and panties and then ties her hair in a ponytail. “And we both know you are not going to do it.” She turns away and she jumps to the water disappearing.

“We both know you are not going to do it…” Becky mocks. “I could’ve done it...maybe.” 

“Hey!” Sasha yells from below. “Pipes are clogged but I think I can clear them, so you run down to the turbine and let me know if it vibrates.” 

“Okay!” Becky yells back and runs down to the turbine. She places her hand on it and wait a few minutes before a big rumble is heard and the vibration is felt on Becky’s hand, She smiles and goes back up to see Sasha putting her clothes back on.

“It’s working” Becky says happily.

“Ha! I told you!” Now let’s go check through the power lines back to camp, let’s follow the road south and make sure every transformer is in order, if they are we can all have a hot shower tonight.”

The both of them start making their way back down to their bikes, not talking, Becky was already fantasizing about her hot shower, thinking that maybe Charlotte would appreciate having one too. Maybe it would get her spirits high or whatever. Both her and Bayley were noticing a pattern with her. The blonde was tired, angry sometimes didn’t want to get up to work. It was troubling.

The way back was fairly easy, no interruptions and thank God all transformers were still in place with not failures. God is Becky feeling that hot shower already. When they arrive it seems the entire camp has been informed as their is a gathering by the main building where the generator is, and Hunter is standing a top of the stairs.

“Word travels fast it seems.” Becky whispers to Sasha as they make their way upstairs.

“People like hot showers, Becks.” She whispers back. “Ok, ready when you are, H.” She says to Hunter with a smile.

Hunter nods at her and walks nearer to the edge of the stairs. “Alright! Listen up everyone!”

The mumbling of the crowd dies down as they all turn their attention to the camp leader, darkness all around them except for a torch illuminating Hunters face.

“Okay, now the past months have been tough, not gonna deny that. We’re low on food, medicine, pretty much everything.” He pauses the crowd, as they all make noises in agreement. “But we got one thing right. And that is that we kept the light on. During this time of hardship all we need is to keep one candle lit to keep us going. Our candle was trust. “

The crowd once again seems to agree with their leader, except for one man standing at the very back, Corbin, who could only scuff at the man’s words.

“A while ago we had some drifters into camp, some of you said we should kicked them out, we can’t trust them. Well tonight we are going to prove them wrong, because the reality of things are that we need everyone, who is willing to be here, who is willing to put in the work, who is willing to help us rebuild.”

He pauses one more time as he now walks towards Sasha and Becky who are standing right beside the generator. “Now for the past couple of months, Sasha has been doing just that, But lately...lately she got the help she needed. Tonight is gonna happen because we welcomed drifters into our camp.” He says pointing at Becky who can only look down. “We allowed them to earn our trust.” He looks at Becky with a small smile.

“Tonight we light one more candle.” He finished as he nods at Sasha giving her the ok.

As Sasha turns on the generator and the light go up around the camp, the crowd releases cheers, some laughing, others look up into the lights in disbelief. But at the end is the look on their faces, the hope they just got that made everything worth it.

Becky stands to the side just watching everybody happy and celebrating and she’s glad that for at least tonight people can forget about how shitty the world has become.

_ “Lynch, you there? _ ”

“Zayn? you have somethin’ for me?” She responds, walking away from the crowd to keep anyone from listening. 

_ “I need you to do one more run for me.” _

“What?!” She says angrily. “Fuck you, gingersnaps. I’ve been doing runs for you for days spyin’ on your little friends without getting anything back, screw you!” 

_ “Wait!  Just one more run please.” _

“I said no. Lynch out.”

“Her middle name.”

Becky’s hand hovers over her radio, pausing before turning it off.

_ “Irene. That was her middle name right?” _

After receiving no response the man continues.  _ “Alexa Irene Bliss, that’s your wife’s full name isn’t it?” _

“One more run, Zayn. And that’s it, then you gotta tell me everythin’ you know.” Becky warns.

_ “Yes, you have my word. One more job.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact Corbin's character in the game is named Raymond Sarkozi aka "Skizzo" who yes is very much an asshole and we all hate him and also dude pretends to be like a gangster who smuggled guns and drugs all over the country but he is actually a frat boy that graduated with honors.
> 
> Fun Fact #2: Sami's character in the game is named O'Brien and Deacon (ejem Becky) actually does several runs where he spies on other NERO choppers and scientists, which again for the sake of not prolonging this I rather just skip. 
> 
> Another important thing to keep in mind is that in between a lot of the 'scenes' there are other conversations and more side missions that I rather cut off to not make things longer, so just in case it wasn't clear, in between all the conversations and activities written, Becky does jobs like killing freakers, clearing camps or rescuing camp members, which is why the camp trusts her and considers her a member.
> 
> Also I needed a middle name for Alexa, so I just went for the one that Deacon's wife has in the game.


	9. She's My Sister

“Yo..”

“Shit.” Zayn stammers, Becky once again sneaking up behind him. “You gotta stop doing that.”

“What you got, Sami?” Becky asks walking closer.

“Alright look, I’m gonna lay it out for you, but is not good news.” He paused, looking at Becky. 

“I finally found a guy who was willing to do some digging through some files that they used to keep, while they still got records.” He said as he showed Becky a file on his hand.

“So Alexa Bliss, your wife, was…” He stopped and opened the folder and started reading from it. “Admitted into the camp MASH unit on the salt flats, outside of Silver Lake.” He side eyed Becky when the redhead stepped beside him to read from the same file. “According to this she was in surgery for six hours and then was moved to…”

“So she survived.” Becky interrupts grabbing the file out of Zayn’s hands.

“Uh...yeah, yeah. Like I said she made a full recovery.” Zayn nodded. “Then she was moved to another camp, on the outsides of Chemult..”

“Okay so...so she could still be alive…” Becky said hopefully. 

“No.”

“Yes. Even after all this time she could still be alive is what you are saying.”

“No. Everything was overrun...There were no survivors.” 

Becky stared at Zayn in disbelief, opening and closing her mouth and finally saying. “You survived.” She points at him angrily. “They survived.” She points towards the chopper.

“No. look, look, look, look...” He stammered. “There was nothing that would have protected that camp, okay? Highway 97 was...was...is… an artery. Infected poured in from LA, the bay area and there were thousands and thousands and thousands of them and…”

“So you bugged out leavin’ everyone else there. Who did you bring with you?” Becky interrupts Sami’s rambling.

“Um… NERO personnel, some Feds, people with clearance.”

“Clearance…”

**Past**

Becky arrives at at the secure gate outside of Cloverdale laboratories. Her and Alexa are meant to go out for lunch today and the redhead offered to pick her up from work.

“Hey, hey, what are you doing? You can’t park here.” A security guard makes an appearance, looking at Becky up and down.

“I’m just here to pick up…”

“It’s private property.” The guard interrupts. “Turn around and get the hell out of here.” 

Becky stays in her spot for a seconds before snapping out of it. “Okay, okay… I’m movin’”

She grabs her motorcycle by the handles and pushes it to do a U turn. “Oookay... shit… this is heavy…” She struggles.

“Move it.” The guard says staring at her.’

“Ugh...there we go.” She says after turning around completely. “You know what though, I think Imma wait right here for a bit., you can go back to do your guard thing alright?”

The guard looks are Becky seriously before reaching for his radio. “This is officer Orton, we have an issue here.” and Becky can only shake her head with a smile.

“Again, this is private property, I already told you. Don't make me repeat it.”

“Listen, buddy. I’m just…”

“You stay right there.” He says, his hand going to his holster.

“If you can just li…”

“Do you NOT see that sign?” He points to the side of the electric fence where a Restricted Area sign was placed.

“Oh, that’s kinda hard to miss actually.” 

“I’m authorized to use deadly force.”

“Can I..Whoa!” Becky puts her hands up as soon as the guard takes out his gun. 

“Hey, what’s going on here?” 

Thankfully Becky’s five feet of fury girlfriend comes through the gate just in time and places herself in front of Becky.

“She was obstru…”

“It’s fine Orton. She’s with me.” She says calming the guard down and placing her hand on Becky’s shoulder.

“I’m with her.” Becky says. 

“I apologize on her behalf.” Alexa said rolling her eyes. “Let’s go.”

A while later, both women were sitting on the terrace at a little restaurant by the river at the edge of Farewell, it was their favorite spot as the food was good and it was the closest to Alexa’s workplace.

“Everything ok?” Becky asks. “You are quiet today.”

“Huh?” Alexa snaps out of her staring contest with her salad. “Sorry it’s just some stuff at work, it’s driving me crazy.”

“Oh.” The redhead said disappointingly. “Here I thought you had seen my new patch.” She continued casually pointing at a new patch on her denim vest.

Alexa looks up at Becky in surprise and switches her seat to be besides the redhead. “Nomad.” She reads and looks up at Becky in question. “Does that mean you quit the club?”

“No, I would never quit the club, this just means I’ll be less involved somehow ya know? Kinda doing my own thing a bit more.” 

“I didn’t ask you to do that.” Alexa said softly, tracing the patch. 

“You didn’t have to, I’ll do it gladly.” She responds firmly. “Not everyday you get a super hot scientist fiance.” She smirks, pulling the blonde closer by her lanyard.

**Present**

“Clearance…”  Becky whispered again. 

“She had clearance.” She said out loud looking at Zayn.

“What?”

“She had clearance.She worked at the Cloverdale facility near Farewell. She was wearing her lanyard that night, I remember, I picked her up from work that night.” Becky says, hope coming back on her voice. “So she might’ve been taken somewhere else.”

“Listen… I, I.. don’t think…”

“Find out, Zayn.” She says seriously.

“Becky… I can’t…”

“Please.” Becky says pleading. “I’ll go spy on all the bunch of choppers you want, but please find out.” 

After contemplating it for a moment, Zayn finally nods. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.” 

\--------------------------------------------------

Becky arrived at camp feeling emotionally tired and she was holding on onto the last bit of hope she could find, even if she knew it was wrong because really what are the chances that Alexa could still be alive after all this time? But then again she made it after her stab wound, she made it when the first camp was overrun so maybe just maybe Becky isn’t losing her mind over nothing or maybe she wasn’t as crazy as Charlotte thought she was… speaking of…

“Where’s Charlotte?” Becky asked Corbin as she was arriving to camp, she needed to tell someone about her meeting with Zayn.

“Don’t know.” He said shrugging.

“What do you mean you don’t know, wasn’t she working a shift with you at the border?” She ask as she look behind her to the gate. seeing if maybe she was getting here with another driver.

“She was, but then she grabbed a bottle of whiskey and said she was going ‘home’ and took off.” He responded and by the sound of his voice he was annoyed about being questioned. 

“And you just let her go?” She asked grabbing him by the shoulders.

“Let me go.” He pushed her hands away from his jacket. “A couple of guys tried to make her stay but she didn’t want to.” He paused looking at Becky. “Sometimes you need to know when to let a people go.” With that he walked away, leaving Becky at the gate.

“Shit, shit. Fucking Chucky.” Becky said to herself. “Charlotte? Charlie? come in.” She called from her radio, getting on her bike and getting her hands free headset to talk to her while she drived.

_ “Becky!.. yeah, uh...I’m here.” _

‘She sounds drunk’  Becky thinks worried. “Where the hell are ya’? I wanted to get to play some checkers with ya’” 

_ “I’m…uh… at the...the...fffarm” _ She slurred.

“Okey dokey, Chucky. Stay there I’ll go get you.” She was tried to sound casual, because she knew Charlotte didn’t respond well when people worried about her. And the last thing she needed was for the blonde to get proud and roam around drunk. 

_ “Yeah…I can do that… I’ll...uh… stay here...yep… got it.” _

Becky speed towards the camp’s farm which was a few miles away from the lake, usually Charlotte would get her working shifts there or with Bayley at the infirmary. She just hope she was fine and that this was just some de-stressing or something of the sort.

Arriving at the farm she came to a full stop on the gate without turning off her bike and asked the guards for Charlotte whereabouts. 

“Hey, you seen Charlotte, big blonde boulder with one arm?” 

“Yeah, she went to the farmhouse after her shift.” 

“Shit.” Becky mumbled. “Okay, if you see her tell her to call me or Sasha.” She said and took off towards an abandoned farm not far from there, it was the place where all workers would usually got to get a drink after their shift, probably the reason why Charlotte went there, lots of alcohol locked up in there.

Getting to the farm, she called out for the blonde without receiving any response, she went to the barn first and noticed a couple of broken whiskey bottles on the floor, meaning Charlotte had been there but left at some point. ‘Maybe at the house.’ She thinks and makes her way to the abandoned house, opening the door she once again called out to the blonde.

“Charlie? You here?” She called out, looking around for clues and finding a half drunk bottle of whiskey on the side table by the couch.  “Chucky.” She called out again receiving no response. ‘Dammit.’

“Charlotte.” She called through her radio.

“Heeey, Becks”

“You said you were at the farm.” She got to her bike and turned it on, ready to leave as soon as Charlotte gave her a clue of her location. “But I just left and you were not at the farm.”

_ “Oohhh...The other farm… I’m at the uh… other farm. I uh...thought I’d go for walk you know? Just a short little walk and whoa.... the floor moved.” _

‘What are you doin’?’ She thought. “Stay there Charlie. Don’t. Move. I’m on my way.” She took off frustrated and worried, she knew there was something wrong, she could hear it in the blonde’s voice every time she talked, every time she tried and make a joke. Every time Bayley or Sasha asked her to come and get a drink with them. But she was too focused on  Zayn she couldn't even spare a second look to her friend… and that was on her. 

“Charlotte, are you in here?” She called out as she walked into yet another abandoned farmhouse, this one used to be the blonde’s house before the world went to shit, she hadn’t place a foot in here since that night. 

“Maybe upstairs?” Becky wondered. “Charlie…” She called out again, checking room by room and finally entered the main bedroom, all she saw was a mess on the bed, with spilled whiskey and a broken photo frame next to it. It was Charlotte and her wife. 

Those were some dark weeks, Sonya had passed away suddenly and quietly. In her sleep due to a heart complication she had since birth. The loss was not easy on the blonde Becky was there every step of the way with her, helping her with the funeral arrangements, packing away her things, making sure the blonde ate during that time. It was the least Becky could do after Charlotte took care her when she first came back from the army.

When she started working with Finn she was a mess, would do the very minimal to keep herself from not dying, but didn’t particularly made an effort.  She was jumpy and anxious all the time, she met Charlotte through Finn, she worked at the bar next door from her shop and would alway give Becky free food at lunch. One day Charlotte found her having a panic attack after hearing a loud explosion from an electricity transformer outside of the shop. She stayed with Becky the whole time bringing her back, since then the blonde became awfully protective of her and would always know when the redhead was going through something, was always there for every panic attack, for every depressive episode always making sure she kept going. She had been working to repay her ever since.

“You are not at farm, Charlie.” She called out trying to no let the frustration slip through her voice. 

“Becks? Weren’t you coming to take a drink with me...and… and take walk.” 

“Charlie just tell me where are ya’? what do see?”  She pleaded.

“The road is gone.”

“What?”

_ “Yeah… yeah.. I was walking and the whoosh there was no road…” _

“There was no...road?”

_ “Yep...like...somebody just...swept it away and poof gone.” _

“Where are you going Charlie?”

_ “Home. I’m going home.” _ The blonde responded and for a second it sounded like she was fully aware of what she was doing.

‘Shit, shit shit.’ Becky thought, “Okay… broken road… think Becks, where could it be?” She wondered looking around the road to see if she could see a clue. “Landslide.” She said,  not far from where she was a destroyed road, there was a landslide a couple of months back leaving the road blocked except for a side hiking trail that went through some caves.  

The problem with Charlotte being there at this time the sun went down meant the horde that hibernate at those caves was probably roaming in that area, so Becky got on her bike and speed up hoping she was not too late.

As she got closer to the landslide she saw a blonde person standing in the middle of it looking at the horde. “Charlie, thank fuck. What the hell dude?”  She said getting off her bike and walking closer to her.

“Becky!,There you are!” The blonde asked cheerfully looking in front of her, a bottle of whiskey in her hand.

“Charlotte, where are you going?” Becky asked pulling her by the arm only for her to be pushed away by the blonde.

“I told you...I’m going home.” She said taking a zip from the bottle.

“Charlie, come on.” Becky said exasperated, pulling Charlotte by the arm again.

“I said no.” The blonde pushed her again angrily. “I’m not going anywhere but home.” 

“You want to take a swing at me, fine. Get in line, behind them.” She pointed towards towards them were a horde of freakers were making their way out of the trail.

Charlotte turned to look and simply took a zip of the whiskey. “Great. Alright. Bring it.”

She said extending her arms towards the horde.

Becky stared at Charlotte in disbelief and with something that looked like sadness maybe some guilt. But she was damned if she was going to let her friend do this alone, go out of this alone.

The redhead closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay. So this is it?” She asked taking few steps to stand next to the blonde, looking straight at the horde. “This is how we are going out?” She continued rolling her neck, jumping in place as preparation.

“No, no, no. Go away, Becky.” Charlotte said to the redhead firmly holding her back from taking steps over to the horde.

“I don’t think so, Charlie.” She gently removed the blonde’s hand from her arm and walked a few steps forward “Huh? Chucky. Huh?”

Charlotte looked at Becky in shock, her eyes don’t believing nor understanding what her best friend was doing, she walked to stand beside her to look at her in question.

“Do you remember the night Sonya passed away...what did I tell ya’? She ask looking directly at the horde.

“What do you...”

“Answer the question Charlie” Becky insisted. “I found you halfway through a case of whiskey. You were going to drink yourself to death. What did I say to you, Charlotte?” 

Charlotte sighed. “You grabbed the bottle and you chugged it all...It was a lot of whiskey.”

“What else did I do?” Becky asked turning to look at Charlotte.

“You told me that if I was going to drink myself to death, you’d be right there with me.” The blonde sighed. “That’s what family does.” 

Becky nodded in confirmation. “So like I said Chucky, is this is how we are gonna go?” 

Charlotte looked at the horde and then at Becky thinking it over, she then took a few steps back pulling the redhead with her. “No, it’s not.”

\--------------------------------------

Arriving to back to camp the blonde got of Becky’s bike and about to start to make her way to their cabin when stopped and looked at Becky, still swaying in place due to her drunken state.

“I just wanna say… thank you. You… saved my life again, I...I… owe you.” She said sincerely.

“Nah, Chucky.” Becky rejected softly. “I owe you, if it wasn’t for you I’d be dead… or worse.” 

“But… you said there was nothing worse than being dead.” The blonde questioned.

“Yep...well I was wrong.” She admitted. “Listen, are you going to be okay?” 

“Oh yeah. Just need to….uh...sleep it of.” She said as she turned to walk toward their cabin.

Becky looked at the retreating blonde fondly, she then got an idea and headed over the mechanic outpost where Sasha was underneath a vehicle getting scrap to fix other things at the camp.

“Knock, knock.” She nodged Sasha’s leg with her foot to get her attention.

“What’s up?” The purple haired wheeled herself from under the truck and stood up. “Did you find her?” She asked wiping her hands with a wet rag. “Is she ok?”

“Not much, yeah, and she’s ok” She answered quickly. “But I uh...have a favor to ask you?”

“Is it for you?”

“No. I mean yes, but like partially.” 

“Just ask me the favor, Becks.”

“Right so I saw that prosthetic you made for Charlie, like the hook thing… arghh” She joked, receiving nothing but an eye roll from the other girl. “Harsh crowd I see… anyways I was thinking that the hook is great but out in the shit, me thinks is not going to work so well, so I thought that maybe it would be better if it was a knife or a blade or somethin’” She finished her rambling staring at Sasha.

“Wait.” Sasha chuckled. “You want me to create a prosthetic blade for Charlotte?” She asks crossing her arms.

“I uh.. yeah?”

“Cool.” Sasha nodded. “I’m in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: Charlotte's character in the game is called Boozer and in the game besides making him a blade arm, Deacon actually goes out to the shit to find a puppy and gives it to him, because the badass biker dude loves dogs.
> 
> Fun Fact #2: Accidentally finding a horde in the game when you are not prepared is actually terrifying, please see this video if you want a visual: watch?v=392P1qbyYxQ&t=50s because yes, eliminating hordes all over the map is an actual game activity and you need shit tons of molotovs and bombs to do so.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	10. They Don't Feel Pain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER: Mentions of Self harm.

“I don’t understand why Charlotte can’t come with me?” 

“Because she has a shift picking up shit in the farm and becau…”

“That’s enough, Corbin!” 

Becky had walked in on Corbin and Hunter discussing their plans to get the one part of what they needed to blow up the cave entrances, this plan involved going into an old mine to get the TNT they were using to excavate, problem was Corbin had already sent in some people and they didn’t come back. Becky suggested they’d go to get it, they meaning her and Charlotte, because number one she needed something to do while waiting for Zayn to call back and number two she didn’t trust Corbin. But alas Corbin being the asshole that he is calls her friend a cripple and then says Becky can’t be trusted.

“Tell me how much is Stephanie paying for a TNT box these days huh?” Corbin asks ignoring Hunter and still taunting Becky.

“I said that’s enough, she’s doing her part.” Hunter intervenes. 

“Her part? Like what? Breaking the treaty with the rippers, skipping work, staying out with Sasha all day?”

“And what have you done Corbs? Sit on your ass all day enjoying the warmth from the electric heater in your cabin that me and Sasha made work by bringing electricity back to camp?” Becky defends herself, already tired of the judgements and accusation Corbin seemed to bring out every time she was near. 

“Alright, knock it off! Knock. It. Off.” Hunter once again intervenes raising his voice having lost his patience at the arguing pair. “You don’t trust her, you go with her.” He says looking at Corbin, he then walks back to his chair and looks at them both. “We are all part of the same camp. Remember that.” 

Corbin sighs annoyed. “Fine, we’ll go in the morning.” 

“Nope, we go now, Corbs.”

“It’s the middle of the night.” 

“You know freakers come out of their hiding places at night, Corbin. Just go with her.” Hunter says tiredly.

“Where are we going?” Becky asked while they walked towards their bikes. 

“Lucky Lad you know it?” 

“Yep.” Becky confirmed, swirling the strong box keys in her hands. When she went out with Hunter to Sherman’s to get the information about the TNT they were able to find not only the list and maps of mines currently keeping TNT but also copies of the keys for the strong box where they kept their equipment, it’s a good thing Becky held on them as she didn’t think she’d trust Corbin to keep them safe.

“Alright, give me the keys. I’ll keep them with the map.” Corbin extended out his hand gesturing for the keys.”

“Sorry, cannot do, Corbs.” Becky says putting the keys away on her pocket. “Not that I don’t trust you but...really that’s exactly why I’m not giving them to you. Wouldn’t want you to leave me somewhere in the middle of the mine while you go get the TNT would I?” She finishes with a smirk.

Corbin stared at her and rolls her eyes. “Fine. But the map stays with me.” 

\-------------------------

By morning a bloodied Becky and Corbin where arriving back to camp with a box of TNT each, it was all going well until Becky had stayed behind though to a tunnel collapsing and had to find a way around it. The first thing Becky had sayed to Corbin was. ‘Do not shoot your gun in there or you will bring a whole bunch of freakers on us’ but of course idiot had not listen and shot his gun as soon as one of them came running towards him. 

Becky of course having to rush and find her way around while Corbin kept making noise had arrived to a bunch of freaker coming in from every direction, with her trusty spiked bat she got rid them all while yelling at Corbin to stop shooting his damn gun to stop the on coming attack.  Thankfully they both made it out alive and with a brand new box of TNT. Only problem there was no cord.

“Listen, I say to it. But we kinda make a good team.” Corbin says once they are finally safe and sound inside the camp.

“Then don’t say it.” 

“Look, all I know is if there’s in one thing you and me can agree on is if Hunter tries and keeps this treaty the camp is not going to last another six months.” He continues.

“Your point?”

“I know I have been an asshole to you…”

“You think?” Becky interrupted.

“I know what you have done for this camp, for your friend. So what I’m trying to say is you got a good head on your shoulders, you are smart. We should talk more you and me.” 

“Yeah… whatever you say Corbin.” She waves him off and turns to walk away. “Let me know if you need help getting that cord.”  She says before she leaves.

She walks towards the infirmary where a very amused Bayley is watching Sasha and a very excited Charlotte try out her blade arm.

“Just...right in the crease… there.”

“Okay, okay...I got it.”

Sasha was strapping in the new prosthetic arm made out of metal and some pipes, a hunting blade attached at the end.

“Hey, what’s the crack?” Becky asks as she goes in.

“Just watching Charlotte get weaponized by Sasha and as per your request I assume…” Bayley says she takes a look at Becky and after seeing her state she get a towel and wets it on a bucket of water nearby. “Here, wash yourself you smell like freaks.” 

Becky takes the towel and start cleaning her neck and face. “You assume correctly.”  Smiling at Bayley as thanks and turns to walk closer to Sasha and Charlotte.

“Lemme secure it in, is that better?”  Sasha asks, pulling on the straps tighter.

“There you go, so much better.”  She responds smiling as she sees Becky walk closer.

“Hey Becks!, all good at the mines?” She asks still smiling a much needed view after the last few days.  

“All good Chucky, how’s the arm?” Becky asks. 

“Look! Sasha made me a new toy!” She says happily, raising her brand new blade arm. “I’m like an actual horsewoman now…. En garde you fucking rippers!” She surprises both Becky and Sasha by swinging the blade around.

“Shit!!” 

“Whoa Jesus!”

The both jump away as Charlotte keeps swinging the blade around.

“Okay...maybe this wasn’t such a good idea?” Bayley asks from her place smiling amusedly. 

“Maybe…” Becky answers slowly.

\-----------------------

“Alright, you dope. I’m here. What do you want?”  

Shortly after her time with the horsewomen Becky received a radio call from Corbin telling her to meet him at night near the storage room apparently he had a plan to get the TNT cord.

“Inside, I’ll tell you what it is.” Corbin opens the storage room with his keys and gestures Becky to go in first. The redhead squints her eyes suspiciously and looks and looks Corbin in question. The latter rolls his eyes and says “I’m not going to kill you, If was going to I’d do it out in the shit where I can place the blame on something else.”

This seems to be enough for the redhead as she then walks into the room and watches as Corbin gets in and closes the door behind him. 

“So...in order to complete your plan of blowing up the mine entrance we need some det cord right?” 

“Mhmm.” Becky nods.

“Hunter hasn’t been able to find any, but I know where we can get some.” He takes out a rolled up map and places it on top of some boxes opening it up “Here.” He says as he points at the marked location.

Becky laugh incredulously. “No way.” 

“Just hear me out…”

“That’s in the middle of ripper territory last time I was there…”

“You got the meds that saved Charlotte’s life.” He interrupts. 

“They sealed up the border, Corbin. If I go through the entrance we are starting a war and that’s not something I want on my shoulders.”

“I got a plan. Besides I’m going with you this time alright? Keep our asses out of trouble.”

Becky seems to be thinking it over, getting the cord was the only way of sealing up the cave and stopping the horder from coming through, but it also meant risking the already frail treaty Hunter had with the rippers.

“Hunter doesn’t have to know where we got it, as long as we go in and out quietly all will be good, treaty still in place and there will be a lot less freakers roaming the camp.”  He points to the map and continues. “There’s a trail right by Iron Ridge where we can go on foot, no need to alert the rippers about our presence.” 

Becky looks at the map and sees that Corbin is telling truth and against her better judgement Becky sighs and nods agreeing with the plan.

“Great! Grab as much gear as you need. Just in case and meet there.” 

With that he leaves Becky in the room with her thoughts.

“What did I just agree to?” 

\------------------------------

“So what are we doing again?” Becky asks as soon as Corbin arrives on the meeting point, it was a hidden trail by the mountains with no signs or any anything to show that it was there unless you were looking closely for it.

“We are going through their back door.” He says getting of his bike. “Follow me.”

“So how did the meeting with Kadlec go?” Becky aks as they start walking through the trail. “Not well considering we are going through their ‘back door’.”

“Hunter told you about that?” Corbin asks and then sighs. “Guess there is no harm in you knowing what with you and Charlotte being a part of the camp now.” He shrugs. “As well as meeting with a bunch of idiots high in pcp or some shit can go. Hunter sent me to speak with Kadlec after one of our drivers saw a ripper camp nearby, the lady said it was a mistake...some rogue rippers.”

“And you believed her?” 

“What the hell do I know, I was just the messenger.” He shrugs. “Alright...shh, get down and follow me.” 

Crouching down they walk closer to a bonfire and hide beside some bushes. 

“What the fuck?” Becky whispers pointing at the scene in front of her.

There were rippers around the big bonfire, around eight rippers all moving weirdly and clearly drugged out of their minds each with knife or a machete in their hand, all bleeding out of what looked like self inflicted wounds.

“They’re cutting themselves. One of our drivers was part of this ‘ritual’ or whatever the fuck,  guy regretted his decision of joining them soon after, he said they are super high to the point where don’t feel the pain.” 

“Huh.” Becky stares at them for a few seconds before turning to Corbin. “Let’s keep going.” 

“You ever saw something like that?” Corbin asks as they quietly keep making their way through the ripper camp. 

“Nope, I’ve seen the cuts and marks, but I just never thought they’d do it themselves.” 

“The end of days will do that to you.”  He looks around and deems it safe enough to stand back up, still walking quietly and staying aware of their surroundings. “Come on, this way.”

“Wait, are you sure?”  Becky asks. Looking at the other side of the road, now recognizing where they were. 

“It’s me.” Corbin answers matter of factly. 

“I use to ride through here back in the day and…”

“What?” He interrupts.

“My wife used to work in a lab close to the Iron Butte Lodge back in the day and my point is that I’m pretty sure the transportation complex is that way.” She points out.

“Just follow me, you’ll see.” 

As they get closer to an abandoned building the both of them start walking faster just wanting to get the shit they need fast.

“Whoa, hold on, get down.” Becky says getting down behind an old car and hiding.

“It’s a fucking horder.” Corbin says doing the same.

“No...it’s not.” Becky leans over the car to look at the mass of humans walking in the middle of the road, grunting and moving as if they were freakers. “They are rippers.” 

“Holy shit.”  They wait until the ‘horde’ moves further down the road to get out of their hiding place. “Come on, it’s just this building over here.” 

Crossing the road they approach the old warehouse, looking for a way as as all the doors seemed to be blocked from the inside. 

“They are fucking crazy, I’m telling you.” Corbin says scanning the place. “If you see their leader, Kadlec. She is batshit crazy as well, full of scars and burn marks. I keep telling Hunter you can’t make a deal with crazy people.” 

“Well, we gotta respect Hunter’s choices.” She says as she looks up to an open window. “Here, boost me up and I’ll open the door once I get inside.”  

Corbin looks up to the window and proceeds to boost Becky up to get through it as soon as the redhead gets in she sees the place is a mess, full of leaves, dirt and mud, just like a freaker nest. 

“Jesus, to each their own but couldn’t they be a little cleaner?” She mumbles as she opens removes the boxes blocking the back door and letting Corbin inside.

The both of them start walking around the small warehouse, looking for a strong box or through all the containers looking for the det cord. Becky manages to open up a locked door with her knife and Corbin proceeds to look through the boxes until he finally finds what they are looking for. 

“Aha!” He exclaims. “Found it. Here you grab half of it I’ll take the other half.” 

“I thought you didn’t trust me with it.” Becky asks looking at the cord in Corbin’s hand.

“As a matter of fact, I do.” He sounds sincere as he nudges the cord towards Becky hands. The redhead believing him grabs it and places it inside her bag.

“Corbin...we uh...actually make a good team.” Becky says as a peace offering. “I guess I just wanted to say thank you for coming out here with me, helping out.” 

“Don’t. Thanks are not necessary. Let’s just get out of here.” He says, Becky nods and turns around making her way to the door.

“Once we get back to camp, why don’t you let…what are you doing?” Becky asks feeling a gun barrel on her back and seeing some bikes getting closer in the distance.

“Sorry, Becky. It was the only way.” 

That is the last thing she remembers before everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: Sasha's character name is Rikki and she actually kinda wants something with Deacon but he rejects her because #wife and she's also kinda in a relationship with the camp's doc Addy but like not officially either way but Becksha is a no no in this fic lets let Baysha be happy here.
> 
> Fun Fact #2" The ripper's way of living is actually a little sad if you think about it, I mean wanting to forget who you are and wanting to feel no pain physical or emotional after the apocalypse I mean... yikes.
> 
> Also what did we think about yesterday's Raw are you all as upset as I am about the horrible chants during the women's match?  
> Am I happy for Nattie? I am.   
> Am I sad about the Belexa feud that could've been? Also yes.  
> Do I still want Nikki and Alexa to be a tag team? Yes x2.


	11. Ripped Apart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter to close this part of the story down.

It was the smell of mud and dried up blood that woke Becky up. The horrible smell made its way through her nose waking her up slowly along with a faint throbbing on the back of her head. As she shook her head to get rid of the fuzziness in her mind she tried to take one of her hands to rub at the pain in her head only to find out she couldn’t.  She turns to look at her arm to find it tied up on post beside her, same thing with her left arm at this she wakes up completely remembering what happened.

“Fuckin’ Corbin.” She mumbles, surveying the room, trying to figure out where she's at.

The room's a mess, full of twigs, trash, mud, dried blood, lit up slightly by some candles around the room. She looked down to find herself without a shirt on, only her sports bra remained but thankfully she was still wearing her jeans and boots. The rest of her gear gone as well. 

Hearing the door creaking open she looks up to see a tall blonde woman come into the room, scars marking her body everywhere, the darkness in the room making it difficult to see her face.

“Do you know who I am?” She asks, closing the door behind her.

“No.” Becky shakes her head. “I thought rippers don’t have names.”

“Well we are on a path.” The woman says slowly. “My followers have all given up their names, except for me.” She points at herself with both of her hands and that’s when Becky sees the blowtorch. “At least for now.”

“Oh...how fun.” Becky whispers.

The woman turns on the torch and walks closer to the redhead, standing face to face with her she takes the torch upwards so its flame is near both of their faces illuminating them. As the redheads eyes widen in surprise, the blonde releases a sickening grin.

“Lacey.” Becky whispers in shock.

“You remember.” Lacey confirms the torch getting closer to Becky’s face. 

“Lacey, what the fuck?” She asks trying to pull her face back, thankfully the blonde turns to pace around the small room. 

“You see, honey. I kept my name and I kept my memories.” She starts the blue glow of the torch illuminating her face. “Mind you a lady never forgets.” 

“I remember how you and Charlotte and Sasha held me down while Beth took a torch to my back…” 

“Lacey, that was a long time ago...we didn't...ugh!”  Lacey disinterested in hearing Becky’s explanation brought the torch to her right arm for a second but it was enough to burn .part of the redhead’s tattoo, the same that Charlotte once had on her lost arm. 

“I also learned something that day...something important.” She says, her hold on Becky’s arm still strong. “Everything that once made you who you are can be burned away.” The redhead squirmed trying to pull her arm away as Lacey burned off what remained of her tattoo. “Until nothing remains but your name.” 

“But…” The blonde removes the torch from the redheads arm and admires her handy work.

“We are not going to this without Charlotte and Sasha are we? The golden girls of Evolution. We are going to finish this. The four of us. Together.” She turns off the torch and blows at the smoke coming out of Becky’s arm. 

“One down, and what? a dozen to go?” She says slowly looking down at Becky’s tattoos on her torso. “Maybe more.”   

“You leave them out of this.” Becky says angrily, breathing deeply through the pain.

“Charlotte and Sasha will get what they deserve. It’s a woman’s right to deal with her problems the way she wants to.” With that she punches Becky and walks out the room, leaving the redhead with a bleeding eyebrow and a throbbing arm. 

\-------

Becky isn’t sure how much time has passed since Lacey was here, all she knows is she is now conscious again with a barbecued and throbbing arm and a killer headache. She’s trying to pull at least one of her arms free where she hears the door creak open again. 

This time it’s different, as this time is not Lacey that walks through the door but a familiar face, one she thought she’d never see again. 

“Nikki.” 

As the other woman walks in, Becky looks at her, she still sees the familiar pain in the other woman’s eyes, she still sees how she walks cautiously, but what’s different this time, is the cuts on the woman’s face and the very clear intent of appearing unbothered.

“No, that’s not my name.” She responds. “I’m on the path. I don’t have a name anymore. None of us do.” She walks closer the door and leaves the oil lamp she was carrying by a worn out table near the door.

“Everyone I care about is dead.” She takes a knife out her boot and brings it closer to Becky, tracing her arm with it. 

“Nikki...what are…”

“Do you know why we want to be like them?” She asks toying with the knife. “Like the freaks?”  

“No.” Becky responds quietly, eyeing the knife. 

With a quick motion Nikki cuts through the rope freeing one of Becky’s arm, the latter looking at her arm and then a the other woman confused. “Is because they don’t remember what they’ve lost. Who they’ve lost.”

“Nikki…”  Becky whispers not believing that the woman she had met before had decided to become one them and yet somehow understanding why she would.

“They feel no pain.” 

The woman throws the knife by Becky’s legs and looks at her arm, she then takes out a small package of sterile bandages and leaves it by the door. “Cabin #5. Your stuff is there.” And with that she walks out of the room leaving the redhead feeling confused. 

She stares at the open door for a few seconds before snapping out of it and reaching down for the knife to cut her other arm free.  Taking the sterile bandages she bandages her arm as best as she could with one hand and leans out of door to look at her surroundings, what used to be an open space now seems almost like a maze with walls made out of thick wood and old tree trunks.

She could see Nikki walking in front of her noticing how the girl waited before making a turn almost as she was guiding Becky out of the house. Slowly but surely she makes it out of the house and looks in front of her to Nikki who’s still waiting for her.

“Cabin #5”  She whispers to herself, as she hides by some bushes she sees she notices old golf cart laying around which means she’s at the old golf complex near where transportation building where she was captured.  

She sneakily manages to follow through the complex hiding out in between bushes or old golf cars along the way. The fact that all rippers she encountered where high as hell made it easier for her to sneak around and for Nikki to guide her. After what felt like hours she finally found herself in the old cabin, thankfully all rippers where outside except for one who was trying out her jacket, sneakily she makes her way behind them, placing her arm around their neck choking them.

“Get your own damn jacket, you dope.” She says as she starts taking her things back, she puts on her white shirt and flannel carefully pulling it over her arm, she then puts on her jacket and looks around for the gun and bat. 

She turn to look at Nikki who’s near the door looking at her.  “Nikki, they are going to know you freed me. So it’s not safe here, we need to leave.” She pleads.

The other woman shakes her head. “No.”

Becky sighs. “Nikki listen to me. All this...getting rid of your name, forgetting who you are? It’s not going to make the pain go away.  You can run all you like, pretend you are fine but guess what? Eventually the pain will catch up and demand to be felt and no amount of self harm or drugs can change that.” 

Nikki looks at Becky and shakes her head. “I’m just so tired.”

“I know. I know Nikki but trust me it is not worth it to live like this, I know how it feels to be consumed by grief and anger and I can promise you it is so much easier to deal with when you have people by your side, because you do Nikki, you have me. And if you don’t want to come with me that’s fine, but you can’t stay here. Please just...just leave and I can promise you that all the pain you feel will eventually get better. I should know.” Becky waits for what feels like forever but the other woman eventually nods.

“Okay, good. So here’s what we are going to do, I left my bike near an old trail close by the transportation center, we are going to stay off the roads and run as fast as we can, alright?” 

\--------------

Slowly but surely they manage to make their way to the old trail where thankfully Becky’s bike remain. 

“So...you coming with me or not?” Becky asks before getting on her bike though as much as she wanted to talk more to Nikki she needed to get back to Lost Lake and warn Hunter of the ripper’s on coming attack. 

“I think… I’d like to be alone for now…” Nikki responds looking down.

“That’s okay.” Becky says softly. “Just...don’t give up okay? And if you ever need a home, you know where it is.” She is then surprised by the other woman pulling her in for hug.

“Thank you, Becky.” 

“Okay…” The redhead pulls away and gets on her bike. “Stay of the roads, Nikki.” And with that she starts her bike and leaves.

“Lost Lake Camp come in.” She call through her radio.

“Sasha, Charlie… anybody there?” 

_ “Becky?!”  _

Becky sighs in relief at the response. “Yes, Sasha it’s me.”

_ “Becky...Hunter send riders to find you…”  _

She could hear gunshots in the background along with the worried tone on Sasha’s voice. 

“I’m fine but listen… Kadlec…it’s Lacey...she’s coming for you and for Charlotte…”

_ “Lacey… what...no, no, no, no, no!”  _

Is the last thing she hears from her following with the sound of an explosion, so she presses harder on the accelerator to make her way back to camp as soon as possible.

_ “Shit...shit...shit!” _

Becky manages to reach the camp in record time and just like the last time she sneaked in she arrived from the back entrance, where there was no gate but a run down long dock to cross the lake, from the distance she could hear gunshots, explosions and she could see smoke and fire coming out from some of the cabins.

“Sasha! Charlotte!” 

She tried reaching them once again with no avail, ultimately she decided making her way through the camp tl find them was a better option. As she got closer to the camp she could see one of the rippers with a knife delivering cuts to an unarmed woman, a member of the camp.

“Get low!” The ripper said while cutting the woman’s face and laughing maniacally.

Sneaking behind him, Becky grabbed her boot knife and reached around to slice the ripper throat killing him. 

“You get low motherfucker!! 

“No, no, no, no, no more cuts! Please!” The woman cowered away still not realizing her attacker was long dead.

“Hey, hey, shhh, it’s ok, it’s ok, I’m not gonna hurt ya’.” She tried to calm the woman down and grabbed her gently by the arms. “Listen, I’m looking for Charlotte or Corbin have you seen them?”

“No… everything happened so fast… there was an explosion...and then rippers everywhere…”

Becky reached down to the ripper’s body to get his rifle, checking the condition it was and how many rounds it had, she turned back to the woman and shoved the gun in her hand.

“Do you know how to use a gun?”

“Yeah…” The woman answered unsurely taking the gun. “Yes, I do.” She says again surer once she gets the rifle on her hands.

“Okay, good. Listen I want you to lay down there, keep a low profile and if you see any rippers come in you blow their Goddamn head off, I’m going to find you friend okay? Now go.”

Watching the woman for a few second until she deemed it safe to leave she made her way through the camp, killing those rippers she encounters.

_ “Becky… I don’t know what’s happening between Hunter and Corbin..” _

“Where Sasha?” Becky asked, relieved that she was finally hearing from the her friend.

_ “The infirmary...damn it!” _

“Hold on, Sash...I’m heading there now.” 

_ “Becky… Bayley...no!” _

Becky runs through disposing of as many rippers as she could and saving as many hostages or trapped people as she could find, eventually she arrived to the infirmary, to the sight of a ripper with a hold on Bayley, a knife pressed to her neck.

“Don’t. Let her go.” Sasha pretty much begs the ripper.

“Please. Don´t” Bayley pleads, looking at Sasha briefly and the closing her eyes when the ripper pulls her closer.

“You are lost! You are all lost!”

“Hey!” Becky runs to them and draws her gun out pointing it towards the ripper along with Sasha.

“Becky don’t.” 

As if the universe decided to be kind to them a horn sounded in the distance, and the remaining rippers seemed to start getting out of the camp and the one currently in front them although hesitating let Bayley go pusing her towards Sasha arms and retreated as well.

“You okay?” Sasha asked softly holding the other woman up and subtly inspecting her neck.

“I’m okay...someone needed my help so I...I went looking for them.”

“Bay…”

“Wait, wait, wait...what the hell was that?”  Becky stopped one of the guys running to close the gate thus interrupting her friends moment.

“That was it. Hunter negotiated a ceasefire.” He responded continuing his way.

“What?” The three girls asked at the same time looking at each other.  Then making the same decision and made their way up to the Lodge’s main building.

\----------------

“Hunter, this is all a big misunderstanding they only want…”

“They attack my camp, they kill my people, you call that a misunderstanding?” 

Hunter, Corbin and Lacey where all in the main building, a couple of guards from Mike’s camp along with a couple of rippers on Lacey’s side. As Corbin tries to explain the situation to Hunter, Lacey stands watching them with a sick smile on her face. Two rippers holding Charlotte by the arms.

“Sweetie, you broke our treaty. Your people came onto our land.” Lacey said using a handkerchief to dab her face. “Not to mention you stole our supplies…”

“Which need I remind you we agreed to share.” Hunter interrupted angrily.

“Don’t interrupt sweetheart, don’t be rude.” She scuffed.

“Rude?, You come here and kill my people...”

“Your people came into our lands…”

“Hunter, listen to me…” As both Lacey and Hunter started speaking over each other Corbin interrupted them wanting to speak his mind. “I made a deal with them, I…” He froze and stood up straight as soon as he felt the gun barrel on the back of his head, making everyone in the room get ready for fight both parties raising their guns at each other.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Weapons down everybody.”

“Hold.” 

Both Lacey and Hunter got a hold of their people, guns raised but not shooting until given the word by their leaders.

“Yeah, Corbs. Please do tell us more about this deal of yours.” Becky said, her gun pressed to the back of Corbin’s head. “Hunter. Kadlec.” She greeted, she then leaned her head a bit more to look at Charlotte. “Look we match.” She said raising her free hand showing off the bandage.

“You bitch.” Charlotte called out Lacey trying to get free from the rippers hold.

“That’s no way to talk to a lady.” Lacey answered. “Now, Baron please do share with the class.”

“Yeah, Corbs. Why don’t you tell him.” Becky nodded to Hunter. “Tell him how you sold us out to them.”  She pushed the gun harder onto Corbin’s skull. “Tell. Him.”

“Okay, okay!” He agreed. “I made a deal with her okay?” Hunter sighed and closed his eyes in disappointment, yet somehow he was not surprised.  “But it wasn’t like that it was just the three of them. Sasha, Becky and Charlotte.” 

“You fucking son of a bitch.” Sasha said pointing her gun from the rippers to Corbin.

“That’s all she wants. Just them.” Corbin continued.

“Oh and how’s that deal working out for ya’?”

“I did it to save the camp, Hunter.” He ignored Becky. “I did it to fix the treaty she broke.”

“The treaty I broke?” Asked Becky. “Who here knew the exact location of the plane crash huh? Who here told me about it and made sure the border was clear of guards all night?”

Hunter shook his head thinking it through. “Becky, is good to see you breathing.” He looked at Becky and then sighed. “But let him go.” 

“What?”

“Hunter!”

“Let. Him. Go.” He repeated.

Becky scuffed and pushed Corbin away lowering her gun. Hunter looked around the room and turned to Lacey. “So is what he saying true? About you making a deal?”

“Only the lost tell lies, sweetie.” Lacey confirmed nodding.

“So that’s it? We give you Sasha, Becky and Charlotte… the biker girls and you leave Lost Lake camp alone?” Hunter asked, while the other four girls looked at him confused.

“You will rest in peace. You have my word.”

“And that means something right? Your word?” Hunter chuckled. “Grand fucking master of the RIP!” He pulled his gun out and pointing towards Lacey making everybody raise their guns again 

“We came here under a flag of truce.”  Lacey said her own gun pointing at him.

“This is my camp. My people. You don’t come here with a bloodstain flag and demand peace...not from me.”  He yelled. “I don’t care what the girl did to you or why you want them, all I know is you are not getting ‘em.” 

“Hunter. Please.”

“We had a deal.”

Both Lacey and Corbin spoke at the same time. 

“Last time I checked I was the leader of this camp not him.” He nodded his head at Corbin, the latter stayed quiet with anger. “So listen up, Kadlec. This is the deal and is the only one you are getting. You get your people and you get the hell out of Lost Lake...or we all die together right here, right now.” 

Lacey looks around the room to Corbin, to Hunter, to the three biker girls and then to her people. “Our treaty stands?”

“It always has from where I’m standing.”  Hunter confirms.

Lacey thinks it over and nods ordering the rest of her people to lower the gun and leave not before being stopped by Becky.

“This isn’t over.  _ Kadlec. _ ”  Sasha and a now free Charlotte surround Lacey ready for a fight.

“Becky, stand aside.” Hunter orders. “Stand aside!”

Becky scuffs and moves to let the rippers pass.

Hunter turns to look at Corbin angrily. 

“Hunter...Listen...ugh!’ 

Corbin get interrupted by a punch from Hunter, falling to the floor holding his jaw. 

“Take him to lock up.” He the turns to look at the girls. “I see in your eyes the need for blood, but this is not how we do thing around here. We do  _ not _ barter with lives and we do  _ not _ kill people in cold blood. We will give him a fair trial and he’s gonna get what’s coming to him.”

Bayley grabbed a hold of Sasha’s hand as support feeling the anger coming from the other girl, Charlotte and Becky where doing no better either.

“Sure, whatever you say. Hunter.” 

\---------------------------------

“We all know who that was right?” Becky asked as the four girls walked to the infirmary to have Bayley check on the redheads injuries. Becky pacing to try to calm her anger.

“Mhmm.” Charlotte nodded.

“Fucking Lacey Evans.” Sasha responded crossing her arms.

“Who?” Bayley asked taking some bandages, alcohol and all the necessary items to deal with a burn injury and black eye.

“Lacey Evans, she was part of the gang before you joined in. Bitch tried to take Beth’s place by making deals with the wrong people and blamed anyone who’d was available.” Sasha explained. “Beth find out and had her kicked out of the gang and you know what happens when we do that.”  At this both Becky and Charlotte raised their arms/blade.

“That mother fucking bitch.” Charlotte said pacing as well. “I bet she knew about us for along time, I mean this wasn’t just some random ripper attack.’” She said pointing to her blade arm. Bayley took Becky by the arms and sat her down to clean her wounds.

“And Corbin really sold us out, that son of a bitch.” Sasha said. “I’m gonna kill him with my bear hands.” 

“Whoa hold up.” Bayley said done with Becky’s wounds. “You are not doing that Hunter will not let you and if you do he will banish you.”

“Hugger’s right.” Becky nodded. “No, you are staying here.”

“But..”

“No buts. Sasha you said so yourself you stayed here to start a new life with Bayley, going out there to kill Corbin or get Lacey will only get you the opposite.” Becky continued to explain, trying to convince Sasha to stay here. “You will stay here and you will let us know what happens to Corbin.”

Sasha looks at Bayley and finally relents, nodding. “Fine, but what are you doing about Lacey.”

“Well...Charlie here is going to get us all the ammunition she can carry, molotvs…”

“What are you thinking, Becks? And I already know is a bad idea…”

“Yeah, it’s a bad idea.” Becky looks at Charlotte interrupting her. “But we are going to do it anyway. Meet me at the gate, I’ll go get the det cord and TNT from Corbin’s cabin.” 

“What exactly are you going?” Bayley asks.

“The reservoir above the golf complex…”

“You are blowing it up.” Sasha finishes.

“They wanna rest in peace we are gonna help them out.” Charlotte says

“Guys you can’t do that…” Bayley tried to convince the girls.

“Why not? Because of Hunter? Because of some fuckin’ treaty?” Becky asked angrily.

“Bay, Corbin was right about one thing...Lacey is not going to stop.” Sasha looked at the woman trying to make her understand. The other girl seemed to think it over and sighed.

“Fine, but you are not going.” She pointed at Sasha she then turned to Becky and Charlotte and said “And you both better know what you are doing and come back in one piece.” 

“And Corbin?” Charlotte asks.

“Oh will deal with him later.”

\--------------------------------------

“They are not going to make this easy are they?” Becky asked as soon as they arrived. She got off the bike and looked at the reservoir, looking for its weak spots already planning where the explosives would need to be placed.

“Nope.” Charlotte responded getting off the bike as well, with her good arm she took the bag of explosives to hang it on her shoulder.

“What are you doing?” The redhead saw what her friend was doing as soon as she turn around.

“Well I figured I’d go down there and asked them nicely if they don’t mind you know, us blowing them up.” The blonde answered sarcastically. 

“Charlie…”

“Look you stay up here with the sniper rifle, keeping them off me while I set up the charges. I may not be good in fire fight anymore but I can set these up without problems.” 

“I’ve set up demo charges before Charlie...I know exactly where to put them.” She said pointing at the reservoir.

“Good, then you tell me where to put them.” The blonde says with a small smile still not relenting. “So we are doing this?”

Becky sighs and nods. “Yeah.”

“I’ll head up to this watchtower, it should give me a good view of the entire dam.” As Charlotte ran towards the dam, Becky head up the stairs to stand on the outside balcony of an old watchtower. She got the sniper rifle out and ready to follow Charlotte.

_ “Okay, where do I set up the first set?” _

“Do you see the two sets of scaffolding on top of the dam?” Becky answered through her radio scouting the place with the rifle. 

_ “Yeah, I see it. Heading there now.”  _

Becky followed Charlotte through the viewfinder of the rifle she watches as she sets the charges on the first set of scaffolding and makes her way to the second one.

_ “I see rippers coming my way, you got them? I’m kinda busy.”  _

_ “ _ I got them, Chucky.” She says as she pulls the trigger and kills two with just one bullet. “Get Low, you dopes.” Shooting the rifle one more time to kill the remaining one.

_ “How ‘bout you do your job? While I do mine?”   _ Charlotte says as more rippers make their way to the dam.

“Okay, Queen. Chill, I got this.” She pulls the trigger one more time disposing of the next couple of rippers who go for Charlotte. “Jeez, someone needs a nap or somethin’.”

_ “Done, where do I set the third charge?”  _

“Make your way down,  you see those big pipes? Sasha, called ’em the penstock, place the charges at the base.”  

_ “Got it.” _

“More rippers, fun.” Becky disposed of the rippers as fast as she could while Charlie set the charges and disposed of those ripper that got to close. “If someone could please hurry up, that’d be great.” 

_ “Okay you try doing this with one hand and a blade.” _

“Oh come on, Chucky. Sometimes I wish I had a blade arm.” 

_ “Oh, shut up. Setting up the fourth charge.” _

“Okay, now get the hell outta of there.” Becky grabbed the rifle and made a run down the stairs to get away as far away as they could from the dam.  Both women ran towards the redhead’s bike and where thrown to the floor when the blast came from the dam. Only thing you could see was concrete and metal flying everywhere and water coming down flooding all of the golf complex rapidly. 

“Holy shit.” Becky exclaimed from her place on the ground. “You ok?”

“Yeah.” Charlotte grunted sitting up, checking her body for any wounds.

“Oh no you arm?!” Becky faked gasped. “You lost it!”

“You are so stupid.” Charlotte said laughing grabbing Becky’s offered hand to get up.

They watched quietly as the water consumed everything in its pass and after a few minutes Becky turned to her bike to get on it. “Let’s go find Lacey.”

“You did a pretty good job out there.” Becky said getting on her bike.

“I swear I saw the light like five times down there…” Charlotte answered getting on the bike as well.

“I’m sorry about that…” Becky said apologetically.

“What are you talking about? Becks, that’s the most alive I felt since…” Charlotte paused for a few seconds trying to remember. “Remember when we got trapped by that horde in Tumalo?” 

“I remember pretty clearly, Charlie. But we ain’t done yet, still more feelings of liveliness where that came from.” And without she made her way closer to Lacey’s current location, it was the main building of the gold course which was up in a small hill, safe from the water flooding everything else.

“Seems like we go on foot from here.” Becky turned off her bike and turned to look at the blonde. “You wanna stay here? Fend off any rippers that come for my bike?” 

The blonde looked around her to see the devastation and looked and the redhead “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem anymore.”

Becky sighed, “Okay, let’s go give Lacey her payback.”

As they approached the lodge they where some cars around the parking lot, enough to provide some cover from the incoming bullets from the remaining rippers, on the other side of the small parking lot the lodge although intact from the water, did receive some damage in the form of fire, the shock of the detonation damaging causing electrical shortages among other things, 

“Becky, our left, our left!” The blonde yelled shooting her gun with her good arm. The redhead moving to a different car to cover that side. 

“Got it!” She yelled back, shooting at the oncoming rippers

“There’s Lacey, main door!” The blonde said, looking at the rest of the rippers she made a decision. “Becks, go up there I can handle this!” 

“Are you sure?!” The redhead asked. 

“Yes, go! Give that bitch what she deserves!” 

Becky looked at Charlotte for a few seconds and nodded. She made a run for the lodge’s door stopping behind the cars until she had some clearance to keep going.

Eventually she made it to the lodge opening the door she looked around to the burning room, the fire crackling around her. “Oh Lacey, where are ya’… I just want to have a little chat?”  She walked further into the room and got the air knocked out by a punch coming out of nowhere, the shock of the hit sending her to the floor.

“Not very ladylike to come in uninvited.” Her attacker said.

Becky grabbed at her stomach and coughed a couple of times. “Not very lady like to kill people either or blame someone else for it.” 

“Sweetheart…” She paused. “Sometimes you have to do bad things for the greater good, at that old hag Beth was stuck in the past a true lady needs to look forward.” 

“Oh please.” Becky scoffed countering what Lacey said. “That wasn’t about the greater good or you looking out for the gang, if it wasn’t you wouldn’t have placed the blame on several members for all your killings or drug deals so you dare pretend it was about that.” A smile breaks on her lips as she continues “We hurt you that badly huh? You were left so hurt you really waited three years and built this false pretense of the RIP just to get your revenge?

I s’pose we should all be flattered. We got to the lady didn’t we?” She continued smirking.

A sharp noise is heard as Lacey pulls out a knife holding it with precision, smiling at the redhead.  

Becky quirks an eyebrow at the blonde and her smile gets bigger. “Hit a nerve huh’?”

“Only one of us is walking out of here alive and I’m going to make sure it’s me. And then I’m going to get your crippled friend and finish the job.” The blonde said as she lunches at Becky with the knife. Becky wide-eyed manages to dodge quickly out of the way, she reaches down to her boot to get her knife but Lacey lunches at her again. 

“Becky Lynch, high and mighty enforcer, the reason I was casted out.” The blonde with her teeth clenched lunching at Becky relentlessly. “I remember when you and your couple of idiot friends held me down while Beth burned the flesh of my arm.” 

Becky manages to avoid each attack, getting caught once in the arm and able to land a few punches on Lacey giving her enough time to reach down to her boot for her knife. As Lacey launches again she’s able to push her arm away from her leaving her some room to deliver a quick punch to her nose and quickly gets her knife into Lacey’s stomach. As the plunges the knife deeper she whispers in the blonde’s ear. “Not very lady like to attack an unarmed woman.” She pushes the blonde away from her and looks at the blonde as she struggles to breath and holds her stomach. “Rest In Peace, Lacey.” 

\-----------------------------

“It’s done?” Charlotte asks as she sees Becky walk out of the building her right hand dripping with blood and breathing heavily. The blonde having disposed of the remaining rippers outside. 

“Yeah.” She nods. “And I couldn’t have done it without ya’.”  The redhead pulls the blonde in for hug which she returns without hesitation. 

“It was good being out here again you know? Charlotte says pulling away, her hand remaining on the redhead’s shoulder. “I gotta say, shoveling dirt, pulling weeds…maybe it’s not such a bad way to spend the day.” 

“Farmer’s life growing on ya’, Chucky?” Becky said with a small smile.

Charlotte chuckled. “Think I can switch this for a fork hoe?” 

The both of them laugh for a few seconds before quieting down. 

“Gingersnaps said Alexa could be alive”  Becky said, clearing her throat and taking out her wife’s work badge from her jeans pocket showing it to Charlotte.

“What?” Charlotte asked shocked, taking the badge.

“He uh… contacted me before the whole Corbin thing… he uh said all people with clearance was moved to a camp south side of here, near Diamond Lake.” She bit her lip and looked at blonde, her friend still listening intently. “He said NERO camp was taken by militia but as far as he’s aware they didn’t kill anybody so… there’s a chance she could be alive.”

“Becks… that’s…wow.” Charlotte chuckles in wonder, her hand going up to pass through her hair.  “How do you feel?”

Becky exhales and blinks. “I dunno.” She shrugs. “Happy? Scared? Like I’m tryin’ so hard not get my hopes up ya know? I don’t...want to get excited only to get there and find out she’s gone.” 

“Get there? So you are going then?” Becky nods. “When are you leaving?” 

“As soon as I can.” She confirms. “Need to clear things up at the camp first though.”  She breathes deeply one more time and rolls her shoulders as she start walking back to where her bike is.

“Let go deliver the news to Sasha first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter the moment we've all been waiting for!


	12. Surviving Isn't Living

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is happening! The reunion we've all been waiting for is here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As per usual I'm sorry for any mistakes you see!

Becky’s standing in front of her wife’s memorial stone at the graveyard and she takes a picture out of her jacket. Her favorite picture, it was of Alexa, she had the biggest, purest smile on her face after Becky had told her they’d be going to disney for their anniversary, 

Staring at it softly she closed her eyes letting the memories come in…

**Past**

It was a sunny August day, both Alexa and Becky where standing at the end of the aisle, with the pastor between them, the left bride’s side was completely empty, her family refusing to participate in a wedding with someone they deem unworthy for their daughter. The other side almost empty except for three guests sitting at the very back of the small church.

“You’ve...uh...both prepared your own vows?” The pastor asked nervously, unused to officiating a wedding with no guest. Both girls nodding at him, Alexa with a soft, happy smile and Becky with a nervous one.

“Um...traditionally the groom goes first...but I uh…”

Becky clears her throat and starts fidgeting, adjusting her the coat of her black suit. It was a casual suit, slacks, with a white collared shirt and a black jacket with the sleeves rolled up.  The other bride was wearing a simple, long, white, flowy dress. The redhead clears her throat and opens her mouth to start speaking, when she feels one of the blonde’s hand caress her face softly.

“I...I’ll go first.” She says looking at the pastor.

“Becky…” She started taking the redhead’s hands on her own. “I’m sorry that almost no one came. Guess we really pissed everyone on both sides.” 

Becky chuckles and shrugs. “I mean not everyone.” Both of them turn to look at the only filled row at the back, the three biker girls only nodding in acknowledgment.

“But I want you to know, that’s how much you mean to me. That I would give anything up for you. “ She looked up and stared deeply at Becky’s eyes. “Anything.” She confirmed. “I was used to routine, always doing the same things, always doing what was expected, but then this girl came out of nowhere with her bike and her puns and introduced me to a world full of adventure. She taught me to not take everything so seriously, she taught me to be strong, she believed in me, she never once underestimated me, she’d always listen and most importantly she’d make feel loved...always.” She finishes, a soft smile on her face and her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“This ring is a symbol of my love…” She takes Becky’s right hand and slid the black titanium ring with a gold stripe in the middle on her finger. “And it is precious.” She said chuckling at the movie reference. “It has no beginning and no end. I love you.”

“Um…” The redhead clears her throat and sniffles. “This ring is a promise…” She slides the matching ring on the blonde’s finger. “That I’m always going to love you and I’m never going to leave you.” 

“You can uh...kiss the bride.”  

“Wait…” Alexa says as she places her hand on Becky’s chest, stopping her. “Only if you promise I can ride you as hard as you ride your bike.” The blonde says with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. The redhead laughing and then pulls her closer by the waist kissing her. The three girls at the back of the church rolling their eyes fondly followed by clapping and cheering at the union.

**Present**

“I’m coming, Lexi.”  Becky whispered at the photo. “I’m coming and I ain’t leavin’ again.” 

She crouches down and takes her boot knife bringing it closer to the stone. 

“Hi.” She waves at it, “I guess it’s kinda pointless it talking to ya’ now, isn’t it?” She starts talking as she starts scratching the stone. “But old habits die hard I suppose. I mean it was me coming here to vent that kinda kept me sane.” She stops for a second to look at her handy work before putting her knife away. “Guess we don’t really need this anymore, seeing as how you are probably still alive and kicking.” 

She stands up to walk away but not before walking closer to the stone and taking the ring on top of it, she takes it up to look at it with the moonlight and puts it back on, flexing her hand open and close getting used once again to the extra weight. And finally walks away from the site.

\---------------------------------

“Hunter” The redhead calls out, standing at the entrance of the destroyed chapel at the camp. The older man turns his head to look at the woman and stands up from where he was kneeling down.

“I was never a church going type of guy.” He confessed turning around. “But after all of this, I figured maybe now is a good place to start.” 

“Yeah, don’t think praying is going to help much.” Becky responded.

“Is that why you blew up the dam drowning all those rippers? Why you killed Kadlec?” Of course the older man knew, he knew what was going the happen the moment he let Kadlec go.

“We didn’t have a choice, Trips. It was us or them.” She tried to explain.

“There is always a choice, Becky.” He said sternly. “The fighting, the killing, all of it will never stop until we figure out what being an ‘us’ is.” 

“Hunter, you can try pray all you want, it’s not going to make the world any less shitty. Because guess what? The fighting, the killing, the stealing, it will still be there. You can try a and pray the shit away, but the bad things, the bad things won’t go away. The same way that banishing Corbin from the camp won’t change the fact that he’s a piece of shit. The world is what it is, and we can’t change that.” She said tired of being scolded by the older man after every thing she does.

“Praying has nothing to do with it, Becky. We make the world what it is… by what we do.” He says calmly not wanting to start a fight. After all they were all tired after the recent events.

“But I don’t want to get into an argument, we’ve had our fair share of those before you left. What did you need to see me for?” He asked.

Becky took a deep breath and walked closer to him .”The Thielsen Pass, it’s all blocked and you know a way over it.” 

“You want to leave? After everything you want to leave?” He asked not wanting to believe it.

“It’s not about you or the camp, Hunter…”

“Like hell it’s not.” He interrupted.

“Just listen to me.” She pleaded. “What if you could take it all back? Find a way to start again? Three years ago I put Alexa on that chopper and I felt relieved.” Becky said frowning.”I broke my promise to her and I felt relieved. How fucked up is that? That’s what I been living with for the past three years.” 

“And you think finding her again… if she’s alive, going to make you feel whole again? You are chasing ghosts, Becky. You know that right?”  He asks frustrated.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care if I am, Hunter. I have a chance here. A very big chance to find myself again and I’ll be damn if I lose it.”  She took a deep breath and continued. “You don’t want to take me there, fine. But at least draw me a map or somethin’.”

Hunter stares at Becky quietly. Thinking it over. “If I do this. You don’t come back.” He paused, making sure the redhead was listening. “You don’t get a third chance.” 

“Deal.”

\----------------------------------

Charlotte, Bayley and Sasha were all sitting down on the gazebo by the lake, having a couple of drinks when Becky finds them.

“Hey.” She calls outs, making her presence known.

“Oh.” Charlotte says upon looking at the redhead, her eyes going down to see the redhead’s hand carrying what was clearly her denim club vest.  Sasha chuckles upon seeing the same thing and Bayley stares at Becky in wonder.

“Guys, I…”

“Last winter…” The blonde interrupts. “Before Sasha and Bayley stopped riding with us, we were up on Farewell Ridge watching the freaks. Thousands of them, too many too count.” She recalls. “I remember thinking every woman, child, human alive was now homeless. Refugees. But I didn’t feel that way because I had you guys, you were my home. But you, Becks…” She chuckled. “You never felt at home not since that night, all you’ve been doing is surviving.” 

“Charlie, I…”

“Surviving isn’t living.” Bayley speaks ups from her place.  

“Doesn’t matter where you are riding to, but you better know where you’re coming home to.” Sasha was next. “Something Finn use to say. And you don’t know, you haven’t since that night.” 

“I… kept my vest, my patches, because it reminded me that I belonged somewhere.” Becky confessed. “No matter where I was or how lost I felt, this made remember that I belonged somewhere. That I had a home no matter where it was.” She sighed and took a sit next to Charlotte on an old log extending her arm to to the blonde so she could take the vest. “But you are right, it hasn’t been enough, not for the past three years.”

“You are riding nomad again, huh?” The blonde took the vest and placed it beside her as she stood up pulling the redhead with her to give her a hug. The rest of the girls following through. “I hope you find her, Becks.” She whispered on her friends ear.

“If she’s out there, you’ll find her.” Bayley says with conviction once they pull away from the hug. 

\----------

Next morning Becky found herself securing her saddlebags and making sure all the supplies where safe and secured to the bike, her denim vest long gone, and now wearing only her jacket. A military style jacket, with enough pockets for ammo and various things. Alexa’s work badge and photo safely secured in one of them. Her right arm bandaged and well taken care of. 

“You know I took Beth fishing once.” Her inner musings were interrupted by HUnter making his presence known. “She even caught one and poor woman didn’t know what to do with it.”

“That was Beth for ya’.” Becky said with a grin, standing up from where she was crouching next to her bike.

“She ran a tight club. You girls raise hell back in the day. Didn’t kill anyone in cold blood back then either.” He says as he gets on his bike.

“It’s not murder if they shoot at you first.” She mumbled. 

“You ready?” 

Becky nods and the both of them start their bike, Hunter going ahead with the redhead following him.

The ride to the Thielsen Pass took around a while and the higher the got the colder it got until eventually it started snowing, both Hunter and Becky well prepared with jackets and goggles to ride in the snow weather. 

“Alright, this is as far as I go.” Hunter said making a stop on a forgotten trail close to the blocked tunnel. “Keep following the trail, it will take you up the mountain and down the Diamond Lake Valley.” 

Becky listens intently and nods once the older man finishes talking.

“I hope you are right about your wife being alive.” He says.

“She is.” The redhead says with conviction.

The road was a long and tiring one, going up the mountain in the cold there wasn’t much to see, at least not until she made it to the other side as she started heading down the valley she eventually came across of what looked like a military checkpoint, two girls a top a rooftop yelling for help as a bear was up its two legs trying to get them.

Becky quickly got off her bike and lit up a molotov throwing it to the bear and taking out her assault rifle releasing round after round whilst the bear moved around burning, from where she was she could see the bear had kinda barbed wire around it as if he got caught tried to cross a fence and forced his way through. Wanting to save some ammo she lit up a pipe bomb and threw it at the bear taking advantage of the fact it was still recover from the burning wounds. Thankfully that was enough to blow up the bear and end a threat.

“Oh Jesus...fu...”

“Behave yourself Corporal”

Becky bent down, hand resting on her knees breathing heavily. “The hell was that?”

“That was rager bear, what? you’ve never seen one?”

“Infected bear, is what she means. Thank you for helping us.”

“Right...infected.” She stood up and looked properly a the two girls. Both of them wearing military style clothing, it might’ve not been a full outfit but the intent was there.

“I’m Captain Trish Stratus and this one here is Corporal Fox.” The blonde haired woman says extending her hand to the redhead.

“Becky Lynch…” She takes the hand and as she look down she sees an all too familiar four clover ring on the Captain’s hand. The latter pulls the hand away from the hold snapping Becky out of her thoughts. 

“Are you okay?” The Captain asks.

“Uh yeah...just tired...I’m sorry did you say Private?” She asked confused.

“Hope County Militia, you come over the pass?” The blonde woman asked.

“Nah… I just been uh..driftin’, came over the Salt Flats. Kinda on the lookout for a place to settle in.” 

“Come with me. I’ll take you to our outpost get to know you a bit, maybe you are a good fit for our group.” The captain says. “We could offer food and a place to sleep.” She offered. 

“Sure, I could use some water.” Becky nodded and followed the other woman once she got on her bike. They made their way down the mountain and Becky could see the amazing landscape, sunset making the mountains and lake look majestic. But she was also thinking about this militia group, how big it was? The Captain mentioned an outpost which means there must be an HQ as well, did they take survivors in? Would Alexa be there?

After driving for a few minutes they stop by the side of the road, it looked to be an old lookout, Becky followed the Captain to stand besider by the edge of the lookout.

“Tell me how long have you been drifting?” She asks looking at the lake below them.

“For like a year or so.” She answers without giving out too many details.

“And your gear? Where did you get it?” 

“There where a few camps I did work for, bounty huntin’ mostly. I had a reputation for being good at tracking shit.” She shrugged. 

“Mhmm. Are you familiar with this area?” 

“Yeah, my da’ moved us from Ireland to a town north from here when I was on my teens, Farewell. You know it?” She turned to look at the woman and compared to the other woman in the checkpoint, the Private. She had a certain air about her like she was actually in the military not like the other woman who seemed to have been picked up after the outbreak.

“Not really. Spent most of my time in Mississippi. I was with the Air Force.” So Becky was right. She could always tell when that was the case, it seems everyone who has served has a certain look to them, they way the held themselves, the way they talked. she wondered if the same could be said about her. “I’m guessing you’ve been here before?”

“Yes, I have.” She leaned forward to rest her hands on the railing, looking down at the view in front of them. “A few summers back me and my wife stopped by here on our honeymoon.” 

The captain showed a small smile at that. “Do you have pic? Of your wife I mean?”

Becky chuckled unsure not knowing if she should show it to her or not. The other woman smiled and took out a picture of her own from her coat. “This is Lita.” She showed the picture to Becky who took it with care and looked at it. “We were married twelve years when… well everything happened. She didn’t think she was made for marriage but I convinced her to try and well...she always liked a challenge.”

Becky stared at the picture, it was a lovely picture the woman, Lita, was holding Trish from her behind, the latter leaning back and with a smile on both of their faces. She couldn’t help but reminisce about her own wife.

**Past**

“Mmm… you know I think this might mean ‘Keep out’.” Alexa points at a No Trespassing sign, hanging from a barbed wire fence blocking the trail they were currently following.

“Nah, that doesn’t apply to us.” Said Becky walking to the fence placing her right foot on the bottom wire pushing it down and pulling the second wire up with her right hand. “We don’t obey the law, Lexi.” She finishes with a coy smile.

“Excuse you, some of us do.” 

“Mhmm…” The redhead smirked. “After you.”

The blonde looked around making sure no one was coming and sighed. “Alright.” She went ahead a went through the gap, holding the wires open for Becky once she was on the other side. “You know, making me part of your criminal activity? Not so chilvarious.” 

“Chilv...what now?” The other girls asks going through the fence.

“It means…” She looked at the taller girl and saw the amused looked on her face. “Right, a year of dating and I still never learn.”

Becky chuckled. “You never do. Let’s go.” She took the blonde’s hand and starting following the trail once again. 

“So...where we going?” Alexa asked after walking for a while. It was late at night and Becky had taken her on an spontaneous date, they were following a trail for a while and now they had started walking through a more secluded area, the start and the moonlight have the place and amazing ambiance with the sound of a waterfall from a far.

“Just follow the trail, you’ll see.”

The walked in silence for a few minutes with Alexa walking in front of Becky looking around in wonder at the previously unseen landscape. 

“Wait..is this a pot farm?”She asked frowning. “Is this what you wanted to show me? Evolution’s illegal farm?” 

“What...noooo” She responded, then sighed, “Yes you got me, I brought you here so you could give us some tips...ya know? Use those phds of yours for something good.”

“Oh my God, Becky you can’t…” She gets interrupted by the redhead chuckling and the roll her eyes.”Goddamn it. You were joking again, weren’t you?.”

“Yep..” Becky responded with a coy smile. “This is not what I wanted to show, also FYI this isn’t Evolution’s, this used to be Finn’s actually, now Seth’s ya know the Shield’s.”

“Then why are we here, if it’s not yours? Oh shit...are we starting a gang war by being here.”

“Oh relax, Lexi.” The redhead took the blonde’s hand again and started pulling her towards another trail. “We are all friends, different gangs but friendly alright, just follow me.”

After a few minutes of silence the blonde spoke up again. “It’s beautiful out here, can you imagine what it would look like if all the lights went out and everyone could see this?” 

“You mean this depressing and shadowy landscape?”

“What do you…? Damn it, you were joking again. You never take anything seriously.”

Becky fake gasped. “I take everything seriously.”

“Oh like when I asked you to move in and you laughed thinking it was a joke?” The blonde countered.

“I pretended I didn’t hear you, there’s a difference.”

“I really don’t know why you freaked out. All I did was suggest something so we could take the next step and spent more time together.” Alexa answered casually.

“Excuse me, I have a toothbrush at your place.”

The blonde rolled her eyes. “Oh I’m sorry, you are right. That’s a huge commitment.” She said sarcastically.

“Good toothbrushes are expensive.”

“See there you go. Everytime I try to talk about our future you turn it into a joke.” She said with a subtle tone of frustration, the talk heading on to dangerous waters. 

“Okay, you are right.” The redhead nodded. “We need to talk about ti, and we will. But not before you take a look at this. This is why I brought you out here.” She gestured with her hand motioning the blonde to walk ahead of her.

In front was a beautiful landscape, They had reach a clearing with a small waterfall by the mountain, the moonlight and stars, reflecting on the lake’s surface. Different flowers grew around it, creating the most amazing flower bed.

“Becks, this is beautiful.” Alexa stopped at the edge of the lake, taking everything in. 

“About our future…” Becky began, standing behind the blonde and getting down on one knee and pulling out a ring. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you…”

“What…” The blonde turn around her eyes opening up in shock at the sight in front of her. “Becky.” she whispered.

The redhead took her girlfriends hand and prepped the ring. “Will you uh…”

“Will I…”

“Will you...um…”

The blonde laughs and pushes the other girl to the ground so she’s laying completely on her back while she straddles her. 

“So that’s a yes?” Becky asked placing the ring on the blonde’s finger.

“On two conditions.”

“Name them.”

“One we don’t have a biker wedding where you make some ridiculous bike joke or pun.” She said with a big smile.

“Not happy about that, but I’ll manage.” 

“And the second one…” Her tone grew a bit more serious and looked directly into Becky’s eyes. “You promise that you’ll never leave me.”

“Done.”

**Present**

“I thought the same thing about myself.” The redhead said after a while. “My wife’s name was Kate and no I don’t have a photo. We left everything behind.” She finished giving back the photo.

“I see.” She said and turn back to her bike. “Let’s go.”

\-----------------------

After riding for what seemed like forever Becky finally follows Trish to the main HQ of the militia, the camp was settled in an island on Crater Lake, a large dock was the only way in and out the island with two wooden watchtower and an a electrified gate blocking the entry.

The gate opened as soon as the Captain made her presence known and they made their way to the island, all of it was completely surrounded by tall walls made out of logs, there were guards everywhere, military tents set up as an armoy, explosives storage, you name it they had one. Everyone walking around had a gun and although there was no uniform they seem to all have a red band with markings on it, a signal of their ranks Becky guesses.

“You guys are takin’ this militia thing seriously.”  She said in wonder.

“Colonel believes discipline is a good motivation to accomplish great things.” As if on cue a soldier pushed a woman with the barrel of his gun, telling her to hurry up and take the box she was carrying to the storage. 

“You call that motivation?” Becky asked with her eyebrow raised. From what she could see the Captain wasn’t exactly happy about what she just saw.

“There’s a camp a few mile from here on Diamond Lake, a working camp for those unfit to serve.” She answers seriously. “Come on, follow me.”

The walk up a hill where a wooden stage was set up two other recruits already in place and a few soldiers standing in front of it as spectators. “Go stand up there. I’ll wait here.” 

Becky nods and walks up the stage to stand beside the other recruits, another soldier comes up with a bag shaking it. “Alright all jewelry, rings, bracelets, you gotta give them up.” The redhead hesitates but ultimately removes her rings and deposit them in the bag.

“Ten-hut!” A commanding voice yells and every soldier goes into the attention position. As a former soldier herself Becky does the same thinking that maybe her own experience can help her get recruited into the camp and hopefully scalate ranks quickly, the more freedom she had in the camp, the more chances she had to look for Alexa. 

“At ease.” Says the man, who Becky assumes is the Colonel, and old, tall man wearing military fatigues, walks up the stage. “Visitors are not welcomed here. You are all here as potential recruits because my officials trusted you. When I walk by you, you are to step forward and speak your name, last name first.”

He starts walking and stands before a woman.

“Name.”

“Fuck you.”

“I said, name.” He repeats.

“Ripley, Rhea, sir.” She mocks, saluting.

“How many men have you killed?” He asks, seriously. Looking at her up and down.

“Before or after?” She grins.

The man sighs. “Prison tattoos. It’s because of you God brought his wrath upon us.” He said with disdain in her voice. “Take her to the work camp.”

He then stands to the guy next to Becky, and repeats himself. “Name.”

“Maverick, Drake...and no… I uh… a haven’t killed anyone or...or gone to jail… I uh.”

The Colonel raises a hand to stop him from talking and then moves to Becky, he glances up and down noticing her calm demeanor, the redhead standing up right , chin up with her arms fixed to the side. 

“And you?”

“Lynch, Becky.” She responds clearly.  “And yes I have killed people before.”

“Extend your right arm.” He commands and the redhead follows through.  Her military tattoo sticking out from her jacket sleeve. “Tenth mountain. Irak?”

“Afghanistan.”

“Honorable service? And don’t lie to me, I’ll know.”

“Served two tours. Served with honor, hated every minute of it.” She responds. 

The man releases a small smile, almost proud. “Thou shall not lie. Good.”  He motions for her to step in the middle of the stage. “Raise your right hand.” Becky and the man behind her follow and raise their hands. “Do you swear to serve and protect under the New Constitution of the United States against all natural and unnatural threats and serve with honor?”

“I swear.” Becky answers firmly. The Colonel smiling and nodding as the other soldiers cheer in celebration. 

“Dismissed.” The Colonel orders and then turns to Becky. “Walk with me.”

_ ‘Really? Here too?, you guys can’t just offer me a place to sit just once?’  _ She thinks but follows the Colonel either way. 

“I’d like our doctor to take a look at you, come on.”

Walking into the infirmary the check up seemed like a routine one, checking her eyesight, movements, heart rate etc… the doctor asked where her burning had come from and the redhead mentioned it was a wood stove accident although exceptical the doctor lets it go and confirm she is fit to serve, he then asks if she’s doing runs and the Colonel confirms she is, but she was already spoken for.

“Let me guess, the Wizard Island Witch.” The doctor said. to which the colonel only nods to and proceeds to leave ordering Becky to follow him.

“I don’t normally let my people speak out, but I make exceptions for some of my officers, you might be wondering who the Wizard Island Witch is.” He said as he passed the stage area and walked down a hill.

“A lil’bit, yeah.”

“She’s my best Lt. although harsh in her ways, what she’s doing could be the key to helping us win this war against the freaks. She was a scientist in her previous along with my other Lt. Naomi and that seems to work up amazingly on our favor.”

At this Becky perks up, a scientist who was a woman, could it be?

“A scientist, what kind?” She asks trying to get more answers.

The Colonel chuckles and responds. “You’ll know soon enough, come on let me introduce you to Naomi first.”

Naomi turns out to be an explosive enthuthiast, a chemical engineer on her previous life, she was working on creating an explosive, some sort of alternative molotov with more fire power to burn down a horde quickly, she was the first of the two Lt. Becky would be working under. 

They left Naomi’s tent not without giving Becky her first requisition form, apparently she needed styrofoam and a lot of fit.  

“You’ll be mostly working with our next Lt., she is exceptional but she can also be a little too...inpatient.” The Colonel opened the door and Becky swore her heart leaped out of chest at the sight. She could see the Lt. from behind, she was wearing a tank top with her hair blonde hair in a ponytail, scolding another office. She tried to keep her hopes down but that was soon forgotten as soon as she heard the voice she had missed for the past three years.

“Alright what is this?” She asked angrily shoving a bottle of chlorine to the officer.

“Ma’am? I got everything on the requisition form…” He tried to explained.

“Does this look like fabric softener to you?”

“Uh…” He staggered

“Answer me!”

“No. Ma’am.” The soldier answered quickly.

“Read it.” She ordered, pointing to the bottle’s label.

As the man struggled to read the chemical ingredients, Becky walked a few steps closer, trying with all her might to keep a straight face. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, her hands closing in fists and her patience wavering just wanting the girl in front her to turn around so she can look with her own eyes the face of the person she has missed for the past three years. 

“Get out. Out!” She snatched the bottle from his hands. The colonel motioning with his head to the door. Silently ordering the soldier to leave.

“Vince. I can’t do this, If I have to go on my own supply runs.” She said frustrated, finally turning around. And the redhead...the redhead swore in that moment that her world started making sense again.

“I got it covered, Lt. Bliss, this is Corporal Lynch.” The redhead took a step closer to the light so she was standing right besides the Colonel in full view of Alexa. “She’s a new member or Stratus’s unixft and she has some experience out in the shit.”

To other’s the blonde might’ve looked calm and collected but if you really knew her, you could see the roller coaster of emotions that passed through her eyes in a split of second the moment, she laid eyes on Becky. Her heart and mind not wanting to believe it was actually her, that she was looking at the eyes of a person she swore dead a long time ago. A death she worked hard to get over.

But he’d said it, hadn’t he? Lynch? But that couldn’t be true, she wouldn’t do this again. She couldn’t do this again. She knew better. She closed that door along time ago along with her feelings. Sure, she looked like her. Impossibly like her, the same red hair and brown eyes she fell in love with. But even if it was it couldn’t happen. 

Alexa fought to keep her voice steady, she cleared her throat and grabbed the bottle shoving it into Becky’s hands. “Read it.”

If she spoke, she’d know it wasn’t her. But if it was keeping her safe from Vince would be a whole different challenge. She glanced over to the colonel like this was another idiot in her way. “The ingredients, read them. You can read can you?” She scuffed, and looked back and forth between the Colonel and Becky. 

Yes, speak to her as if she was just another grunt on her command, that was what The Witch would do. The persona Alexa had worked hard to become, the person everybody deemed a cold, heartless bitch all while Alexa Bliss’s heart was silently screaming. 

“Active ingredients: Chloroform, A-Terpineol, Benzy Alcohol, Ethyl Acetate…”

And then she spoke, and it was her voice. And her hands with her tattoos peeking from under her jacket. And that irish accent she loved to tease her about.

“Good enough. When can she start?” She said and snatched the bottle from her hands, walking away, turning her back so she could hide her emotions. Controlling the frenzied beating of her heart.  

“I’ll leave you to it. Good night Lt.” The Colonel nodded and left the room.

“Leave us.” She managed to say, her voice two seconds away from breaking.

In the meantime, Becky didn’t make a move. She was so unsure of what to do or what to say. It was that same uncertainty she’d hide behind wisecracks and swagger.

“Lexi.” She call out softly and the blonde could feel all the stitches she’d put in over heart just ripping apart. 

“Stand at attention.” She tried to order as the redhead tried stepping closer to her. She needed the distance as a self-defence. She was trying so hard to keep it together and she felt like she was two seconds away from a collapse. 

“Lexi.” She said her name again. She said it in the same tone she used to say it whenever they woke up on sunday mornings right after Becky brought her, her morning coffee to bed. In the same way she used to say it when laying between the sheets after date night. 

And then against her own wishes the blonde’s hand touched her cheek and it felt warm. Alive. “No… you..you’re dead.” She tried to reason removing her hand quickly.  She’d been without her for two years but here she was standing in front of her. It couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be real.

“You’re supposed to be dead...you...you can’t...no…”  She was speaking fast, losing her breath on the verge of a panic attack but then her hands were on her arms, holding her.

“I’m right here.” Becky said softly and firmly, holding her gently. “It’s okay, I’m right here.” She said her hand guiding Alexa’s to her heart so she could feel her and believe that it was her.

Alexa’s panicking came to a stop as she felt the clear beating of Becky’s heart, as she felt the warmth of her skin, she looked up to see warm eyes looking at her with care and love and next thing she know she’s kissing her. Because how can she be alive and in front of her and not kiss her. The miracle she was silently always asking for.

“Wait… wait a second…” She pulled away trying to form coherent words. “I don’t understand, I couldn’t find you…”

“Yeah...I thought...you had died… so Charlie and I…”

“We were overrun and we had to go south and NERO said no one made it out and Farewell was gone…”

“Yeah! NERO! I found Gingersnaps...I mean Sami Zayn, the dude I left you with and…”

The both of them spoke over each other, telling their own side of their story. How they’d survived, how she found her.

“We can ride out here. We’ll pick a direction and we won’t look back…” She spoke and the current situation they were in came crashing hard around the blonde.

No.” She hated herself as soon as the words came out, but there was no other way. “I can’t.”

She tried to explain, but the words wouldn’t come. She couldn’t find the word to explain to her why she couldn’t leave. “We can win this war.”

“I didn’t come here to fight a war.”

“You don’t get it, I can be helpful, I can make a difference and I can’t do that if I go with you.” 

The hurt and confusion in Becky’s eyes was obvious. She couldn’t believe it, here Becky was leaving everything behind to get to her but it seemed the blonde wasn’t as happy to do the same. And the redhead was a loss, not understanding what was going on.

“Stay here with me. Help me.”  The blonde pleaded after all she had just gotten her back and she would leave again. She couldn’t let it happen. “We fix this and then we leave, wherever you want. Please.” 

“Colonel’s looking for you.” A soldier interrupted.

A beat of silence after, Becky responds. “Whatever you say, ma’am.” Her eyes wouldn’t meet hers. She couldn’t look at her. 

“Wait a second. Your requisition form.” She held out the clipboard and didn’t let go once she reached out to take it. She gave it to her because she needed something, like a promise that she would see her again. And if giving her an ‘order’ was the only way. Then she’d do it. She could only hope the redhead would see if for what it really was and not as just an order. 

“Thank you...soldier.” She would always have to keep the distance when they had an audience. Even when she could see the misery on her face. After all, rules, ranks, military was one of the things Becky hated the most. And she was pleading to whatever God was left that they could get through this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... I tried to go more into what Alexa's point of view is, mostly because we've seen a lot of Becky's already, I hope it made sense and wasn't anticlimatic. 
> 
> In the game the whole Wizard Island Witch was not explored, which I didn't particularly enjoy, and they didn't really explain why Sarah (Alexa) kept Deacon at a distance after they reunited so I will try to add my own explanation here or what I think is the reason along with why everyone calls her The Witch. 
> 
> Fun Fact In the game Trish's character is an named Kauri, the dude is someone you are not sure you trust at first, he is just a dude that gives you missions and is somewhat involved with the main storyline. But SPOILER ALERT you can, he's a good dude.
> 
> Also are we ready for the Belexa match next Monday? I am!


	13. I Know Things Are Strange

Someone once said grief is like the ocean: it's deep and dark and bigger than all of us. And pain is like a thief in the night. Quiet. Persistent. Unfair. Diminished by time and faith and love. But what happens when the world around you seems faithless, when there is no love to give.

Three years ago she lost the person she had love most in the world, the person she would give up everything for. Someone who completely changed her life in the most wonderful of ways. Subsequently, she lost herself in strange ways too. After losing the people she loved and cared for she lost faith and hope. 

It had taken Alexa Bliss months to become the Witch. Sure, the name had settled in once the Militia had officially settled in into the old NERO refugee camp. But it took a while, she learned quickly The Witch worked better with an audience so she always made sure to show people why you shouldn’t mess with her.

She could say it was a survival mechanism, self-defense because in a way it was. It so much was easier to be that, it was easier to hide behind that and push everything else to the back of her mind. The Witch didn’t do feelings, she didn’t make connections, she didn’t show vulnerability, didn’t care for others but herself. Alexa had learned what those things did to a person. What playing nice could do, what loving and losing someone could do.

Maybe it was an ongoing process that was triggered by that tragedy, but she does not recognize the face she sees in the mirror any more; Doesn’t recognize her words, her voice and her soul. She has become someone else, as notional as this may seem, she’s not herself anymore. Not the person she used to be.

She knows there is nothing that makes her experience more exceptional than any other person who has lost a loved one, specially in this new world. But still, such is the nature of grief and loss that it dents each soul similarly and yet differently.

So when the person she thought long gone all of a sudden came back. She panicked, she pulled away.  It was self-defense. She stood up tall and unbothered when she should’ve been shaking. Crying. Something. Nothing could penetrate the unreality of the moment. The impossibility of it. Becky alive meant she’d been alive for three years. She’d been without her for three years, but she had been alive, and that didn’t make sense.

How could she be alive? She knew how she, herself, had survived, She was alive, and all of the brand new problems that caused came crashing down around her. She couldn’t survive with the Militia. She’d hate them like she hated all authority. This was her wife who’d nearly gotten shot by a rent-a-cop.

“Stay here with me. Help me.” She had said, Because yes distance is good, but there will always be that one thing that breaks you, and the redhead had a way of getting through her without her even noticing. And if she was truly honest, if she listened to that voice in the back of her head, she’d realize she’s scared, because Becky’s here but for how long? She could survive more than three years in a freaker-filled wasteland, but the titles, the rules, saluting to power… those things… would kill her from the inside if not from the outside as well.

Alexa has been here for over two years, she’s work under Vince for all those years and she know how that man is, how convinced he is that all of this was part of God’s plans, she’d seen first hand how he murdered someone in cold blood simply because they had prison tattoos, how he turned his back to soldier who had been wounded out in runs and were left unable to serve, Vince was not a man you wanted to play with. And that’s something that whether she wanted to or not, scared her the most.

She needed to keep Becky close, perhaps she lied to her ownself and said the reason for that was so the redhead would ruin her plans to help the militia end this war, freakers vs humans, she could lie and say it was because she didn’t want to another death on her hands. But deep down she knew it’s because she was sure she wouldn’t not survive without her, not again.

And the distance, keeping her at arm’s length was nothing more but self-defence from her part, she couldn’t be that dependant on someone’s presence again, but she couldn’t bear losing her again either. So if giving her requisition forms for the simplest of things would mean the redhead could keep coming back to her. Then she’d do it.

“Thank you - soldier.” She had said to her as she gave her another requisition form. She would always have to be The Witch when they had an audience. Even when she could see the misery on her face. But it had been the only way she could survive without her. Now, it was the only way she could keep both of them alive.

\------------------

“Hey...I got the shit that you asked for.” Becky walked inside Naomi’s tent holding up a box of styrofoam things. Cups, plates, you name it it was there. 

“Cool, place it on the table. Let me test it.” The woman stood from where she was in her desk and walked over to the middle table she had set up as a lab, tube’s, burners and other chemicals laying out it.  “So.. how’s it going with Lt. Bliss?” She asked curiously.

Becky breathed deeply, needing someone to express her frustrations at but knowing she couldn’t be open about her relationship in here. It wasn’t safe. “What do you mean?” She settled with instead and walked a few steps to look at an old music festival the engineer had hanging on one of the wood walls.

“Well I see you doing a lot of runs for her.” She was examining the styrofoam stuff, and taking pieces out of it and placing in a petri dish. 

“You jealous?” Becky asked jokingly.

“Girl, please.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Just doing my job.” 

Naomi laughed after and went to her desk to grab some gloves. “Yeah right. I had a recruit who tried to hit that once, when he first got here.” Unbeknownst to her, the redhead had her jaw clenched.

“Is that right?” She asked trying to sound casual, turning around to meet the eyes of the engineer.

“Oh yeah, and let me tell you that lady has a fine a…”

“Do you need anything else?” Becky interrupted wanting to get the conversation over and done with.

“No, no. Just follow me.” She grabbed a glass bottle with whatever combination of chemicals she had put it in and walked away out of the tent, Becky following her.

“You see polystyrene is an aromatic hydrocarbon…” The engineer went of her explanation about how mixing the two chemicals together formed a strong reaction to who knows what, Becky wasn’t listening anyways.

As they were walking to a big bonfire the had on at all times in the camp, Alexa walked out of her tent, stopping in her tracks when she saw the redhead walk by with Naomi, she stared at her from where she was, she could see the red hair she loved so much flowing with the wind, it had gotten longer, the gun holster placed on the her right thigh, the redhead’s hand on top it, resting it casually yet ready to take it out at any given moment. 

Becky was nodding to everything that Naomi was saying and from the corner of her eye she could see a certain blonde watching her, she hadn’t yet seen her today. She desperately wanted to, even if she was being distant. You see Becky was no fool she knew her wife, and she knew her well. Whatever the reason for the blonde’s behavior Becky could see it for what it really was, an act. And she’ll be damned if she lets the blonde push her away. She just found her and she won’t give up. Not now.

Becky turned to look at the blonde staring at her with a small smile, saluting her. The latter could be seen grinning before she caught herself and looked around to make sure no one saw and went on her way.

Becky chuckled and went back to trying to listen to Naomi. 

“...mix those two together, all those molecular chains break up into single covalent bonds.”

“Pfft.. yeah… everybody knows that.” 

As soon as the get to the bonfire Naomi lights up the molotov and throws it in the bonfire creating a huge explosion and causing the fire to grow bigger.

“Shit!”

“Wooo! Yes! Now that is napalm molotov and that my friend is how we are winning this war.”

“Holy wow!” 

“I few more tweaks to the formula and ka-boom!” The engineer said happily walking away.

\--------------

“Hey, doc!” Becky walked in to the infirmary after her talk with Naomi, the doctor had told her to come back in a few days after her first assessment to get the bandages changed from her arm.

“Corporal Lynch, how’s that arm going?” Doctor Daniel Bryan asked, the only an actual doctor remaining in the camp, is not surprise as to why Colonel Mcmahon refused to let him go out in the shit. They had no else to take car of the sick and injured.

“What’s wrong with her arm?” Another voice chipped in, Becky walked further inside the infirmary to see Alexa grabbing some alcohol bottles. The blonde girl looking at Becky and then to both of her arms to see the damage..

“Just a runnin’ with a wood stove, Ma’am. Nothing more than that.” The redhead said casually, removing her jacket and folding her sleeves to uncover the area. Doctor Bryan put on some gloves and carefully removed the bandage revealing the nasty scaring. Safe to say the blonde had to work very hard to contain the gasp from coming out of her mouth.

“Uh..” She cleared her throat. “Corporal, come see in my tent after you are done here.” She ordered and left without another word.

Both the doctor and the redhead stare at the blonde leave quickly. “She’s a special one.” Doctor Bryan said.

“Yes, she is.” 

“Okay, so it’s not bleeding or oozing anymore. That’s good. So I’ll give you an ointment you will have to put in everyday with a new bandages, use it for a week and then you should be able to remove the bandage.”

\---------------

“Show me your arm.” The blonde demanded as soon as she got in the tent.

“What?” 

“Don’t play dumb. Show me your arm.” She demanded again.

Becky sighed and took off her jacket again, her sleeves already rolled up from the her visit to the doctor, already knowing this would happen.  The blonde walked closer and took a look at the bandage undoing it a little just to look at the wound.”Jesus, Becky what the hell happened?”

“I told ya’ just a runnin’ with a stove.”

“Becky.”

“What, Lexi?” She asked frustrated

“Tell me the truth. Please.” The blonde asked crossing her arms.

“Fucking Lacey Evans.”

“Lacey Evans.”

“Yeah. Lacey Evans, she was a former member on the gang, made very bad choices on purpose and Beth had her kicked out, she might’ve burned her tattoo whilst me, Charlie and Sasha held her.” Becky said as she re-did the bandage and leaned her back on the metal table standing directly in front of Alexa and started telling her a brief summary of what happened, the blonde keeping her cold facade but the look of surprise, anger and worry on her eyes betraying her. “...so yeah she’s the reason Charlie doesn’t have an arm and why I almost lost mine.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I have been sending you out in the shit while you are injured… had I known I…”

“You’d what, Lexi? Stopped sending me out in runs? We both know you can’t do that. And are you really asking why I didn’t tell you? I mean jeez I dunno maybe because I have this idea in my head that you don’t care and…”

“That I don’t care?! Becky I…” The blonde could feel all her emotions raising up, getting ready to explode like a volcano eruption, the frustration in Becky’s voice along not helping matter. But she managed to stop herself taking a deep breath before continuing.  “I’m sorry. It’s just this is very frustrating sometimes.” 

“I really wouldn’t know.” Becky responds tired.  “Anyway I uh… brought the flour or whatever the fuck you needed.” She took the heavy bag of flour and place it on the table.

“Thank you.”

“No. Don’t” Becky said annoyed.

“What now, Becky?” The blonde asked equally annoyed. It seemed that she was walking on eggshells around her. Being careful of what she said and how she said it, because every little thing seemed to upset her wife. Not that she could blame her. But damn it she was trying.

“Thank me, don’t thank me. Every time you do I end up outside with another one of your stupid requisitions forms.”  Oh shit. Becky closed her eyes, she screwed up. She knew it as soon as the words came out from her mouth.

“My stupid req...oh so that’s what you think it is...”

“I didn’t mean that.. I just…”

“Everything that I’m doing is stupid?”

“No.”

Their words were said along with one another. Both of their frustrations coming out at the same time.

“Of course you didn’t mean it.” Alexa watched as the red head took a deep breath and bowed her head looking at the floor quietly. “You know why you are still here?” Damn it. She screwed up.  _ ‘Seriously, Alexa?’  _ the blonde asked herself.

“Let me enlighten you.” Becky said staring into Alexa’s eyes. “I’ve spent the last three years killing freaks, one by one, up close, so close, that could smell the rotting flesh from between their teeth.” She walked closer to her wife and continued speaking codly. “And if you are doing or cooking somethin’ here that will get rid of them for good. I’m all in.” She said lowering her voice.

“Becky… I…” The blonde tried to apologize.

“Or maybe, just maybe it’s because for the past three years I haven’t been able to live with myself after I broke my promise to you, or because I haven’t been able to look at myself in the mirror without seeing you in that chopper…” The blonde although trying to keep it together could feel the tears on her eyes but refused to let them fall. “Or maybe it’s because for the last few months I have been chasin’ fucking NERO choppers just to get a tiny clue of what happened to you. Or maybe it’s because I found you, I found you after thinkin’ you were gone and I refuse to leave you again.” She paused looking at the blonde waiting for any kind of response but not finding any. “But if you don’t want me here, then by all means just say the word and I’m gone.” She finished talking staring at the blonde, once again giving her a chance to talk but after not receiving anything she turned around a left the tent.

Well, fuck.

\-----------------------

Like walking on a bridge made of glass, we’ve always been careful of opening up to new people. Sometimes even ending whatever connection we make with someone even before it starts. Before a mutual understanding is created. Before love happens. And sometimes when a connection ends and the later re-starts that fear multiples. So we make a conscious effort in not letting them break the wall we carefully built for own reasons. She pushed and always pushed because that’s her only way of protecting herself in this new world.

But watching Becky walk away from her in her tent, this time under the consequences of the blonde actions, that moved something within her. Because here’s the thing that’s when she’s the weakest, when Alexa pushes people to the point where they are about to give up, that’s when she needs them most desperately. 

So here she was in her tent, laying awake on her cot radio in hand about to call her wife, was is a stupid decision? Yes it was, but she was doing it anyways.

“Becky, you there?.” The Witch had called her before, whenever she was out in the shit for updates, locations and the like. But never like this.

“Le…” She cleared her throat. “Lt. Bliss, yes I’m here, ma’am.” Alexa cringed, again with the ‘ma’am’ plenty of people used it to call her, but damn it was she starting to hate that word.

“It’s fine, you...don’t have to call me that. It’s a secure channel.”  She closed her eyes still thinking if this a good idea, after all they’d just had an argument and they hadn’t even talked properly. Maybe this really was stupid. 

“Do you need anything from me?” She asked, not knowing why the blonde as contacting her. 

“Where are you?” Alexa asked softly.

“In the shit. As per usual, Naomi wants something, Stratus wants something and ya’ know...it’s...uh late. You need anythin’?”

“I…” Her words dried up and she bit her lower lip. The woman she loved was back from the dead, and she couldn’t even complete a sentence without leaving both of them with hurt feelings. “I want you here, Becks.” She confessed.  _ ‘I need you here.’  _ Her heart screamed.

“I’m here, Lexi.” She said softly

“Are you… safe?” 

“Yeah. Just stopped for a bit, freaks go out at night so…”

She nodded even if she knew she couldn’t see it.

“You still in the lab?”  She asked and she has never been more thankful for her wife’s talent to talk about anything at any given moment. Her silence answer enough. “Shouldn’t you be asleep Miss plant scientist?”

“No… I mean yes but I’m busy and I’m frustrated because my research is not going well and I just needed to vent I guess.” She made a low sound of disgust. 

“So you called me in the middle of the night just to say hi, huh?” Her voice was warm and teasing and God how has she missed that. “So tell me what does the Witch of Wizard Mountain wear to sleep?”

“Oh my god, Becks.” She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely, Ma’am.” She was enjoying this way too much.  

“Lt. Bliss.” She hears her name calling from the other side of the door and she can only close her eyes at the interruption.

“Becks, I gotta go. I’m sorr..” 

“Don’t. Is fine, Lexi.”

“Stay safe out there.”

“Is that an order?” She teased.

“Yes.”

“Then will do, Ma’am, will do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys we got a Belexa match today and I couldn't be happier. I mean Alexa almost straddling Becky, plus biting almost biting her hand, it was great!
> 
> Anyway here's another chapter, it explains a bit more of Lexi's thought of process, hope it makes sense.


	14. I've Had Better Days

 

Alexa had been thinking. A lot. About a lot of things, like reminding herself to try her sample on an infected rat, remembering if she turned off her burner, if Naomi could fucking work quietly without thinking because their lab/tents where right next to each other and she could listen to everything, reminder herself to ask Becky to pick up a flesh sample of one of the freakers, the most…  evolved ones if you will.

Becks… 

Most of her thoughts did revolve about her and how they only saw each other when Alexa needed something, because that was safe. It was the perfect way to keep her at a distance but close at the same time. That’s probably why the both of them kept sniping at each other whenever they talked, they had a long overdue talk that could not happen until Alexa figured out that ever looming feeling in her chest that had not let ever since her wife came back..

Which brings us back to her original point, all her thoughts revolved about her wife, and digging through the mess of feelings she had inside of her. Until they were organized enough for her to be able to name said feelings. And boy did it hurt to admit, but she had to...it was resentment.

Resentment shows that you are a person of moral character who knows right from wrong and therefore knows when wrong is done against you… in theory, but in cases like these it represents a development in one’s anger from mild to deeper and it lingers. Specially when you have no way to fix it because you thought the person you are resenting was dead.

So what happens when you are carrying a weight like this for a long time? Well it can become a part of your identity, a part of who you are as a person.  Once you start saying that you are a particular kind of person, it sometimes is threatening to change the identity, because you get use to it and the familiar is better than the alternative even if the familiar includes pain and unnecessary suffering .

So yeah, she was resentful and she hated it and yes she knows there was a lot to unpack by admitting that. She might not be able to say it out loud yet but that was the truth she resented her wife for saving her life, for making her live without her for all these years and then casually showing up to throw her life upside down. And yes maybe Becky had already told her a taste of what it was like for her during this past three years and did it make her feel better? A little, as bad as she feels about that she does admit hearing how guilty the redhead felt made her feel better. But it also made her realize she wasn’t the only one that lost her wife back then and she wasn’t the only had that had to work to build a new life around that. 

Having said that as a scientist Alexa knows her next step should be creating a process to fix it, to solve the problem. On the one side she knew all Becky wanted was her and to leave, she herself wanted her wife close too. But on the other Alexa wanted to stay because she needed to see this done, get this project of hers of the ground. To hopefully save whatever was left of humanity. So logically, she concluded, she needed Becky’s patience, that way she wasn’t choosing one or the other but both. Becky was close and she could work on the project. That made sense right?

\------------------

“Alexa”

“Yeah...just put it on the counter.” The blonde said distractedly as she was looking through a microscope.

“O...kay.” 

Alexa sighs and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry, it’s just… this project is driving me crazy.” She said with a small smile.

“I can imagine.” The redhead responds sympathetically. “Stratus is making me scout a squatter camp, possible threat or whatever so I’ll be out in the shit in case you need anything else.” 

Alexa seems to to think it over reaching out for the requisition form she hesitates, holding it in her hands. “I’m not giving this one to you.” She said looking at the form in her hands and then at Becky. 

“Why not?” She asked confused, but through her eyes she was able to see some vulnerability, like maybe she was preparing for the blonde to tell her she was asking someone else from now on. Like there was any way on earth of that happening. 

“I’m going with you.” On the one side mostly from the public perspective this was very practical, she knew the location, she knew her way through the building as she had been there before, and she knew what she was looking for. So yeah, practical. But on the more internal side of things it was her own way of taking the first step into fixing things between them, her own attempt at getting rid of this… weirdness that surrounded them. At least until she was able to find the courage to talk to her.

“When’s the last time you went on a run?” Her wife asked as she was following her to her designated sleeping tent. The one the blonde never used. Too big, too empty...too quiet.

“I’ve done supply runs, just like everyone else.” The ‘Thanks to you and your wonderful idea of leaving me’ was left unsaid. “It’s been a while.”

Does she like being outside, in the shit, with freakers everywhere… no. But still, First is better than being hold up in this Goddamn camp and secondly just the idea of being out with Becky, with no ranks, no prying eyes, no interruptions was enough to get her out of the safe space.

Walking into the unused tent Becky looked around observing the place. A cot in the middle of the tent with a chest at the feet, boxes shoved in one corner of the room probably filled with chemicals and other equipment. “Nice place.” The redhead said with amusement.

“I’m barely ever here, usually spend my nights in the lab.” She stood up and put on her jacket and a gun on her holster. 

“Uuuhh… nice shiny gun, you remember how to shoot one?” Becky asked, remembering how she thought the blonde to shoot a gun after she found it on one of Becky’s saddlebags while they were out on a date.

“It was a gift from Trish…” She responded quickly, she’d never asked if anything had happened with anyone else while she’d believed her dead. Neither had Becky. She’d been afraid of the answer. Maybe her wife was too. Not that anything happened, she was never able to let go of her. “And I do remember how to shoot it, thanks. Let’s go”

A few minutes later they were near the gate by Becky’s bike, the redhead on it and ready to go just waiting for the blonde to get on it. Both deciding it was better to take one bike...less attention that way.  

“What’s wrong?” She ask, looking at how the blonde hesitated before getting on.

Alexa hadn’t been that close to her since she came back. She hadn’t held her wife, felt her arms around her and the safeness that it brought. This was almost too much for her, reminding her of how it used to be, the both of them riding together, her holding Becky from behind most of weight leaning on her, resting her chin on her shoulder. “Nothing.. it’s just..” she cleared her throat. “Never mind.” She got behind Becky and rested her hands around her waist stiffly, still keeping as much distance as she could considering her current position. 

“Hold on..”

“Hold on tight, yeah, I remember.”

\---------------------

They talk on the way there, Becky asks her about the project she’s working on and just like before she actually listens, ask questions, like how does the yeast help, how does the science of that works. She missed it, having someone to talk about it, someone to vent too. And Becky, Becky missed listening to her wife babbling about science, about the subject she was so passionate about.  It was somehow a nice change of pace for the both of them and Becky, could finally breathe a little easier knowing that if the blonde was willing to be out in the shit with her then maybe not everything was lost between them. 

Then Alexa asks how Becky got out of Farewell, the redhead tells her they barely made it out, how everything was overrun within minutes, how soon there were roadblocks, checkpoints, how military started shooting people on sight, and somehow they had made it to the refugee camp where they first took her but when they got there it was all gone, same thing with the other camps. For the blonde it was nice to hear Becky did look for her afterwards, and she could see how the redhead could believe she was dead too. Made her feel a little less resentful.

The redhead then tells her about how people started fighting over scraps of food, killing each other for no reason at all and how the horsewomen sticking together was key to surviving back then. Alexa then asks about Bayley and Sasha, she had a few conversations with them but was never as close as she was with Charlotte. 

Alexa gets off the bike as soon as it stops and walk towards the boarded up gate, chuckling. 

“You’ve here before?” Her wife asks, getting of the bike as well.

“A couple of times…” She responds. “Career day was my first time, they invited me here to talk to the students about pursuing a career in biochemistry.” Chemult Community College was the proud owner of the Jackalopes Football Team and one of the best placed if you wanted to get into science, the state of the art labs and equipment a proof of that. She remembers during the evacuations how this was once of the most guarded camps, she remembers lounging with other college kids, how she talked to them whilst standing in line at the cafeteria to get her provisions. Now it was worse than a graveyard, full of the unburied dead and the infected. “Thinking back on it, the talk should’ve been about how to survive the end of the world. “

“Right…” Becky answers not really knowing how to respond. “How to use a Gun 101.” She says jokingly. When it doubt, she guesses, humor is key.

“Right.” The blonde said with a barely there smile. “Let’s go.”

“What the hell happened here?” The redhead looked around the place to see makeshift tents, clothes, old beer bottles and dead bodies all around. 

“This was one of the refugee camps I was in, but it got overrun as well.” 

“This place is going to be crawlin’.” Becky says, more like an statement so she takes out her gun. “Do you know where are we going?”

“The science building...should be one of the back buildings.” The blonde responds as they walk up some stairs. “Whoa.”

“Newts.” Newts where kids or teenagers that were infected. They are mostly harmless, keeping to themselves as long as you don’t invade their space. The redhead points at one of them about to pull the trigger, before the blonde pushes her arm down.

“Don’t, we don’t want to bring the whole place down on us, we don’t even know what’s in there.”’

“Well, we know what’s in there...a bunch of newts.”

“Let’s just go around.” Her wife responds and walks away. Becky sighs and decide to follow her, whatever the lady wants she supposes.

With a task to focus on, the tension between was easy to deal with. Alexa could tell Becky not to shoot the newts and the redhead wouldn’t take it as an order. Becky could quick-think and talk the both of them into facing down a small army of freakers. Having Alexa stay inside to shoot as most of them as she could with Becky’s rifle while Becky went out to face them up close.

“You stay here, you take out the stragglers and I’ll take out the rest.” She said, almost annoyed as if she was complaining of having to do the same thing for the hundredth time, which she probably had. “We can do this. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.” 

“What?... are you sure about this?” 

“Yeah.. pftt… I do this all the time.”  

“Becky…”

“Once I’m on the other side of this door, you go batshit crazy with the bullets okay?” She hesitated for one second with her back to the door and Alexa was close to giving her a kiss, for good luck. But the last thing they needed was for things to get more complicated.

\---------------------

_ “Uh Lexi…” _ She heard through her radio and Goddamn it she knew they shouldn't have split up, they could’ve find another way in, one that the two of them could use. But no, Becky had to boost her up a window, and Alexa was left trying to find something to pull Becky up the window.

_ “Oh shit...shit, shit, shit.” _ She heard, and then the gun fire started along with the tell tale growl of the freakers. Trying to stay calm, Alexa kept looking around the building looking for something she could push out the window but all she could find where heavy desks or old carton boxes.

_ “Lexi, find something for me to climb on!”  _

“I’m on it.” As long as she heard gunfire Alexa knew Becky was safe. Well not safe, but alive. Finally she found a couple of wood crates sturdy enough to support Becky’s weight, she dragged it back to the window and pushed it out. Next thing she know she’s dragging her by the arms through the window falling down to the floor in a heap laughing side by side.

“Why are we laughing?” 

“You were always trying to convince me to go back to school.” Becky rolled on to all fours, pausing to collect herself, smiling at her. “Guess you finally did it.”

“Better late than ever.” She says with a smile. And God did she wanted her to lean in and kiss her. But Becky being the gentlewoman that she was and respecting her boundaries stood up and offered her hand to help her up.

“Thanks.You ready?”

“Yes, ma’am. Whatever you say.”  This time there was no frustration on her words. And maybe just maybe Alexa didn’t mind being called by her rank if Becky said it in the way she just did. 

Continuing with their mission they continue making their way through the hallways of the school. Blood was streaked on the walls, reminders of the survivors that were once here. scattered around.They needed to focus so they could get what they came for and return to the safety of the camp. Although a part of Alexa wished they didn’t have to, even if she didn’t want to accept that.

She realized soon enough that they made a good team figuring out how to get in, blow up the barred doors or get through the roof. Alexa liked solving problems and getting this piece of equipment was a problem and she especially liked solving problems with her wife. She was very clever...always had been. And she was skilled and most of all she listened to her, actually listened to her in put. And shit she could feel her carefully crafted wall being to crack.

And then there was a group of squatters when they were on their way out. Then came the freakers attracted by the gun fire.  Becky and Alexa once again worked together Alexa taking the left flank and Becky the right, disposing of the humans and the freakers one by one, then later when the got into the parking lot, Alexa threw smoke bobs so Becky could sneak up and get rid of the squatters there.

“Are you alright?” Becky asked and Alexa turned around to look at her and nodded. She looked dazed. Had she been hit hard when she wasn’t watching? If so they needed to get back to camp asap so Daniel could take a look at her.  Should Alexa drive on the way back?

“I mean...you...I know things have changed, but there is something there whenever I look at you that it’s just...unsettling and I don’t know what it is, you...are acting differently...with me.” 

“It’s been two years Becky. A lot’s changed since then.”  Alexa snapped.

“What...happened to you?”  So, okay, maybe the timing of her question wasn’t the right one, but Becky had been holding on to that question for a long time. She knew her wife, and whatever or whoever she was pretending to be these days, The Witch, that was not her but that’s all she has been getting out of her. Coldness and practicality.  “What happened that make you like this?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She knew what she meant, she wanted her wife back, the old Alexa, the Alexa people underestimated, the Alexa that was scared of even touching a gun, the Alexa who was always honest and open, but the old Alexa was dead, she has been for years.  “Nothing’s happened to me that hasn’t happened to every other fucking person on this planet.”

How does the saying go? One step forward, two steps back.   
  



	15. What Kept Me Going

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In honor of new the Tag Team Champs...here's the new chapter. Sorry it took a while but this was a long ass mission and I had a hard time figuring out how to make it shorter but understandable.

“Well, that’s it. That’s as far as I can go.” That was the first thing Becky heard as soon as she got into Alexa’s tent. The blonde sounded defeated and stood looking at her microscope, her hands on her waist, cursing the science instrument.

“How can I help?” She asked. She may not know what exactly went wrong, but judging at how the blonde was burning holes into the microscope she guesses maybe the centrifuge wasn’t as helpful as she thought it would be.

“You can’t, unless you have a DNA synthesizer somewhere.” The blonde turned around and passed a hand through hair and them placing both hands on the table and leaning her wait into it.

“Nooo... but there’s an auto parts store near Fort Klamath I could check out.” The redhead stood besides her and leaned her back onto the table, crossing her arms. The blonde would be lying if she says she didn’t find her closeness soothing, she did. And she was slowly starting to accept that Becky’s presence made it all better in the simplest of ways. She was still her wife at the end of the day. The love of her life.

“Becks, you can’t get what I need there, you...” Alexa was about to go on rant about how a synthesizer could be put together with auto parts, when she turned to Becky and saw the little smile on her wife’s face. Just like old times. “God, you think I would learn.” She says chuckling and shaking her head.

“But I do think I know where you can get one...” The redhead made sure to look at the blonde so she’d know it wasn’t another joke, but that she was talking seriously. And yes, it might be a risk to go all the way over there but if that could help Alexa finish her project then she’d be willing to risk it all. “Your old lab. Cloverdale.”

“Yeah, that’s great. All we have to do is find a way over the mountains.” The mountains that separated her from here and the place she once called home.

“Yeah, you’re right. That’d be impossible.” Becky wouldn’t meet her eyes while her tone was sarcastic yet playful and that’s when Alexa knew her wife had a way to get over the mountains...that’s how she found her.

“You know a way over don’t you?”She stood up straight and walked a few steps to stand in front of Becky, looking up to her. Alexa had a small happy smile on her face at this revelation and the look on Becky’s face...she looked like she was planning and she knew her plan would work. It was a look of accomplishment and suddenly Alexa felt all the hope she had abandoned come back in waves. “Good. You can take me there.”

“Is that an order, LT.?” She asked, and this time her tone was neither teasing nor serious, and for the first time in forever Alexa didn’t know what it meant.

“Yes.” She said, and the blonde prayed that her tone was teasing. But judging by the look on Becky’s face it wasn’t. “No, I’m just...no. It’s not an order.” She staggered looking to go back to the familiar teasing.

“Well, which is it?” The redhead asked frustrated, as patient as she was the blonde’s hot and cold thing was getting tiring regardless of the weird situation they find themselves in. Becky’s not a idiot, you see she know that by coming here she probably turned her world upside down, unlike Becky who by finding out Alexa was alive she completely redirected her efforts into finding her, she knew her wife operated differently, so she tried to be patient, giving her time to adjust and figure out how she was feeling.

But Becky had been here for weeks, and only just recently started talking more, and going back to the teasing and the joking. Alexa using the private channel more often, so naturally the redhead thought they were on a good track. But maybe she was wrong.

“I don’t know. Are you going to take me or not?” Alexa challenged because no, it wasn’t an order, but if the redhead refused to take her she’d had to make it one.

Becky sighs and pauses. “Dress warm. Pack light.” She said nodding and moving to get away from the blonde and out of the tent.

“Hey Becky?” Alexa called out before she could get away further, why was closing the distance between them so damn hard?

“Lexi... if you say ‘thank you’ one more time...”

The last thing Alexa wanted was distance between them. Because yes, she had finally accepted that she wanted her close, Goddamn it she missed her wife!. So she caught her arm and pulled her close to kiss her. It wasn’t a deep, slow kiss, it was maybe a long peck at most but it was a reminder to the both of them that she was still here and that she was still in love with her despite it all.

When she pulled back, they stared at each other for a few seconds, Becky holding Alexa by the arms softly and nodding, licking her lips with a tiny smile. “Let me know when you’re ready to go.”

One step forward.

\------------  
A few hours later before dawn she found Becky getting her bike ready , her jacket was placed on the bike’s handles and the redhead was crouching next to the bike a wrench in her hand twisting it. From the distance she could see the redhead had her sleeves rolled and as she walked closer she was able to see the nasty scar the burn had left. And once again she found herself wondering just how much her wife had endured these past years. Alexa might’ve been here, safe, with food and water, but Becky? Becky was out in the shit with no guarantee of survival, not a safe place to sleep, always on her guard and doing God knows what kind of jobs to keep going. And now she was here in a place she hated, playing a role she hated to the bone and all for her. Alexa owed it to her to try and so she was going to.

Hence the reason she’s asked to come with her, when it was just the two of them Alexa didn’t have to spend so much energy in balancing the person she was with Becky and the person the rest of camp knew her as.

“Morning.” She greeted.

The redhead smiled at her quickly, before getting up and cleaning her hands with nearby rag, then placing her jacket back on.

“Going somewhere, Lieutenant?” Colonel Mcmahon called out. His voice making the hairs on the back of Becky’s neck stand up. Alexa unconsciously took a step forward placing her body between her wife and the Colonel.

“Colonel. Captain.” She saluted. She gave the reasoning for her going out as quickly and as concise as she could the less the talking the quicker they could leave.

“I’ve been in the shit before, Vince. You know that I can handle myself.” She said after the Colonel walked closer to her and told her she was more valuable than any piece of equipment. She knows her wife was probably bristlening and she knew she hated when she called the Colonel by his first name, but by calling him by his first name showed that Alexa wasn’t like the others and that the Colonel trusted her more than others. She was the valuable scientist who made tea for him and being close to Vince kept her protected in another way and subsequently her wife too.

“Carry on, Lieutenant.”

She saluted them in return and when she turned around her wife was already on her bike, turning it on, this time as Alexa got on behind her she didn’t hesitate in putting her arms around her.

\---------------

Alexa can literally feel Becky relaxing more and more the further they get of the camp, her posture less stiff, she can feel it. She often wondered how is it that her wife could finish her military service back then, if this is how she acted everytime someone told her what to do.

“Hey Becks?” She asks over the sound of the wind, since her mouth was near the redhead’s ear she didn’t have to yell too much.

“Yeah?”  
“Were you like this back when you where in the military?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean all… grumpy, moody… tense. I mean how did you manage to stay there for your tours if you hated it that much?”

Didn’t take long before Becky starter to bitch about the Militia she was in, she went on and on about how she was young and aimless and being in the military made sense to her young mind and so Alexa lets her vent because at the end of the day she was there only because of her so it was only right.

“...and I just don’t get it, the ranks, the uniforms what’s the point ya know? Back then it made sense, there was more people in the world, it was… stable kind of? I dunno...made sense having a military but now? Like what’s the point? The world has already gone to shit there is nothin’ to defend anymore.”

“Mhmm…” Alexa thought for a bit then said. “Well wasn’t being part of Evolution kinda like that? Ironic considering your… activities.”

“How so?” Becky had slowed than for a bit to diminish the sound of the bike and the wind so she could hear and speak without having to shout as much.

“You had ranks, like ‘President’ and ‘Road Captain’ or I don’t know… ‘Enforcer’.”

“Uh…”

“You all wore either a vest or a jacket with the club’s logo on it, with all these patches and you were all branded with the same tattoo, isn’t that pretty much the same thing? I mean whenever you guys drove together you looked like an army.”

“I mean…” Becky ponded, “I guess I see your point.” Of course it did. People like Beth, like Torrie, like Nattie those had been the people she admired the people who gave her a structure, discipline of some sorts it might not be called the military but being part if the gang was similar in that way. Everyone had a role to play but the difference remained in the fact that they were also a family. It wasn’t just about the crimes or the violence but it was also about the sisterhood. Alexa was the outsider back then, feeling like she was pulling her away from them, when really it was Becky who did that by choice and happily so.

“I’m actually surprised you weren’t wearing your vest when you came into the camp.” She had noticed, of course she had. That vest had been a part of Becky since she met her, almost like an extra limb. And she wanted to ask but the moment never came. So she just threw the comment out there. “I didn’t think I’d ever see the day, I mean you even wore it on our wedding day below your suit jacket.”

“My vest huh? I have to check if the Colonel will let me switch uniforms..” The redhead jokes.

“Well yes, there’s that.” After a few minutes of silence enjoyed the ride Alexa speaks up again, not wanting to stop the conversation. “So where are we going exactly? Or rather how are we getting there?”

“Diamond Lake, up the mountains near Captain Stratus Camp there’s an old service road that winds around the western base of the mountain. It’s how I got to ya’.”

A militia checkpoint came up and Alexa groaned…”Ugh...they are everywhere.” She mumble, but due to the closeness the redhead did listen and smirked.

“Who hates the military now huh?”

“Oh shut up.”

“Hey! Shut it off,” A guy with a semi-automatic shouted. It was the same checkpoint Becky had first arrived in, but this time there was no sign of Fox. Becky wanted to avoid trouble and still having a role to play, complied.

“You’re gonna have to turn around buddy. We’ve got orders to keep anyone from...”

“To keep anyone from what, Corporal?” She leaned around Becky to demand. Her voice changing completely from the teasing, relaxing one she had on the way here.

“I’m sorry ma’am, I didn’t see it was you..but the Colonel said we...” He kept staggering trying to explain to her his orders. And Alexa could feel Becky slouching in front of her, she could see she took a deep breath by the way her shoulder move. The redhead leaned forward on the bike’s handle and traced the design of her gas tank.

“Are you accusing me of going AWOL?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Then get out of my way.”

Becky made half a turn back towards her, with raised eyebrow, and the blonde was confused as to how to take it. Before she could further think about that the redhead started the engine again.

“I’ll have to report this.”

“Yeah, you do that,” She snapped but the guy still didn’t move from his place, “Why are you still doing there, get the hell out of my way.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry, ma’am.” He stuttered as he finally moved.

 

They continued the ride towards the pass in silence, and Alexa was thinking of something to say, anything to go back to how there were before.

“That sounds serious. He said he’s going to report you. You don’t exactly like getting in trouble” It was all her wife said. She didn’t sound serious but didn’t sound relaxed either.

“The Colonel will tell him to mind his own fucking business and never to question an officer.”

“Right.”

And that was it they where back to silence so Alexa kept thinking of something to say, thankfully the mountains gave her something to break the tense silence.

“Oh my God.” She said in wonder the rocky snowed peaks, along with the pine trees all bathed in the light of dawn made everything look so majestic, like a postcard. “The view is incredible.”

“Haven’t really paid attention to that in a long while…”

“How can you not? It’s beautiful!”

“Yeah… I guess it is. Waking up to another day and all that.” She could tell the blonde was really taken by the view so she slowed down by the edge of the road, they could spare a few minutes enjoying the peace she supposes.

“You spend the whole day looking at nothing but chemical instruments and then maybe you’ll appreciate it a bit more.” The blonde said teasingly.

“Oh no I see the appeal..” She said. “I do!” She responded already feeling the exceptical look her wife was probably giving her.. “Knowing that you are still around when the morning comes up it’s a helluva lot better than the alternative.”

“If I’m being honest... There were times where I didn’t believe that… you know hoping to see another day.” The blonde said and she was thankful she did not get off the bike so she was still behind her. She didn’t think she could’ve said it had her wife been looking at her.

“I know the feeling.”

“What kept you going?” The blonde asked seriously. “Back then, I mean.”

“Uh… I dunno… I was just uh…” Becky sighs and stays quiet for a few seconds contemplating her answer. “I was like a drift on the ocean, all alone. At least I felt that way you know? Like I was just driftin’ with no direction, no purpose, just… survivin’ I guess.” The redhead looked down and started tracing the gas tank of her bike again. “I did give up, Alexa, I did.” She admitted and so she opened up about her and Charlotte, the other horsewoman and the blonde could only be thankful that Becky wasn’t alone through those years. “...And then one day I saw this NERO chopper and well you know the rest.”

“Becks…”

“Plus you also had my irish ring… I wanted it back… I really liked it.” She joked, of course she did.

“Becks, if there had been a way to keep it...I would’ve but…”

“Yeah, I know. Military shit.”

“Right.”

Nothing more was said as they continued to make their way finally reaching the main road on the other side of the mountain and getting to the tunnel pass going into the ripper’s former territory.

Becky killed the engine and made her way to the entrance of the tunnel where a car was blocking the only way in.

“I need your help to move this.”

Alexa got of the bike but stopped in her tracks looking at the pile of fallen trees, a gasp coming out of her mouth at the sight of human remains hanging from the sharpened spikes.

“What the hell!”

Becky turned back and saw at what Alexa was looking at. She forgot the blonde hadn’t seen much of the outside other than her runs, and seeing as how there was not a way up the mountains unless you knew about the service road, the rippers hadn’t made their way down to Wizard Lake.

“Oh yeah, remember that one time I got my arm burned off? Lacey? That beautiful story of mine? That’s them.”

“Oh… are we gonna run into them?

“Nope.” She answered simply. “You gonna help me move this or what?”

‘Nope’ It was a simple word, but somehow the way Becky had said rattled Alexa in a deeper way. You see Becky might’ve told her the story of how Lace got to her how her, how she got away, but she didn’t tell her about the dam, about how she watched water flood the entire complex taking and drowning anything or anyone on its path. As much as it was necessary it didn’t mean it didn’t take a toll on Becky having to do that. It’s not like it doesn’t take a toll on her everytime she takes a life.

Alexa didn’t ask for details, but as the passed the tunnel and passed by the complex she could see the signs of flooding, destroyed trees, houses, cars left in the most unlikely of places. Maybe that wasn’t what had happened, but the way Becky said tthat word...

And if she did, so what? Alexa thought, the scientist in her forcing her to see this from a logical point of view, her wife killed people for a living, for the camp. And those people are bad people just like the rippers clearly were, so that shouldn’t change anything.

Wasn’t she the one who said she’d gone through what everyone else had when the redhead asked her what had happened to her? Maybe there was a difference… but that meant that Alexa was just as a stranger to Becky as she was to her. A lot happened on these two years and it made no sense clinging on to what it was and this thought was liberating to her. It was a new start and suddenly the future, Becky, their relationship… it didn’t seemed as scary anymore.

\----------------------------

“Wow, I never thought I’d see this place again.” Alexa gets off the bike as soon as Becky kills the engine. She looks at old gate in remembrance.

Becky gets off of the bike as well and the both of them take out their guns looking around for any threats or hostiles. Becky works towards the gate and looks quickly at the security panel, seeing that is was still lit up as if it was still working she then reaches down to the pavement floor to pick up a branch and then throws it at the gate, sparks flying the moment the branch touches it.

“Okay...the power is still on.” Becky asked.

“Yeah, I’m not surprised.” Alexa said peeping into the old security stand by the door. “There’s a solar array on the rooftop. There were rumors about it being nuclear-powered but I never saw it.”

“Okay, so how are we getting in?”

“I’ll show you.” Alexa answered with a smirk. “You said the power’s still on right?” She walked towards the security panel and placed her hand on it, pressing it firmly. “Alexa Irene Bliss, ID2007659.” How is it that she still remembers her ID number you ask? Well Alexa didn’t know either. Muscle memory she guesses. She keeps her hand pressed while an automated voice welcomes her back.

“Wow.” Becky exclaimed. “You guys were more high-tech than I thought.”

“Yes we were.” Alexa confirms proudly with a smile.

“Oh my God.” Alexa gasped once she walks through the gate, Becky behind her pushing her bike through.

“What’s wrong?!”

“Nothing.” She said chuckling. “Becky there’s so much food here.” She reached down to pick up a corn cob. Both girls look amazed at the small cornfield in front of them, all green and well taken care of. “It’s the automated irrigation system!”

“Well shit, this place has everything. It’s got food. It’s got water. It’s got power. It’s got a big fucking fence. I’m surprised no one is... uh… camped out here.”

“Well there is a 6000 volt electric fence keeping people from coming in.”

The take a few moments to appreciate the clean, running water from the irrigation system, Alexa opens her arms welcoming the cool mist while Becky looks up with a smile and then they were attacked by screaming infected birds because God forbid they have a nice moment for once. The both of them make their way to an old opened car and get inside, closing the doors and waiting for the crows to leave.

“Fuckin’, crows.” Becky says angrily. Once they are gone “It makes them a pain in my ass.” Because of course she’d faced them before, Alexa hadn’t, all she’d seen where runners, infected dogs, beyond that she wasn’t aware of any of it.

They get out of the car and Alexa finds it hard to let go of Becky’s hand when she helped her out of the car. Ever the gentlewoman, even in the apocalypse.

“What….” Becky walked from the car they got out of to another one in front of her, looking at the dead bodies. “These people all worked here, right?”

“Yeah…”

”So someone shot them all while they were trying to leave?” Becky asked angrily, seeing at the clear gunshot marks on both the car and the people.

“Yeah, I mean it looks like it.”  
.  
“And then they just locked the place up and they left? Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know, Becky.” Maybe some old employes looting the place before all fell apart? Maybe they knew something about this whole thing? “I don’t know, I wasn’t here.”

\----------------------------  
As per usual they are not able to get in the building, Alexa tried over and over again with the ID pad with no avail, security protocols she assumed. So they tried the back doors because apparently AIRI or whatever the fuck it’s name was had instructions to leave the emergency doors opened at all times. And Becky, Becky knew there were not alone, it didn’t matter how fancy the security was who in the right mind would leave this place or not come back to it knowing it what it could do. But Alexa didn’t see it that way and Becky wanting to avoid a conflict simply let her take the lead even if took them more time to get in. It was more time she could get with her without all the military bullshit and prying eyes.

When they got to one of the back doors, Becky offered to go first knowing that they weren’t alone, but again her lovely wife insisted there was no there, so the redhead simply sighed and nodded once again letting her take the lead while she took her gun out after Alexa insists that the only person who could be in there was fucking rent-a-cop Randy Orton and that he would let her in. Becky fought hard to not roll her eyes and just nodded. ‘Pick your battles, Becky, pick your battles.’

“Motherfucker!” Becky was proven right as soon as they walk through the door, alarms going off and the sound of people running towards them. Alexa could’ve dismissed it as a misunderstanding, a lot had change. But of course it wasn’t. Fuck.

“You were saying?” Becky crouched beside her as people started shooting at them.

“Yeah.”

“If this world’s taught me one thing? Trust no one and expect the worst.”

“I’m beginning to see your point on that.

After that it was all survival, shooting and taking cover while alarms sounded everywhere, AIRI’s voice repeating over and over again that 911 had been called and Alexa losing her mind at the repeating noise, even asking Becky to shoot at any speaker she saw, anything to end the fucking constant, loud noise. Between that and her having to repeat her full name and ID number every time they encounter a door she was going fucking crazy.

“We have to get up those stairs to the sky bridge.”

“Alright, I’m with you.”

“One more time.” She pressed one hand to the pad. “Alexa Irene Bliss. ID 2007659. Security override, and disable the fucking voice response.”

Becky snorted at her swearing at an automated voice. As the door slid opened to reveal an open office space, it was your typical corporate offices, cubicles, with name plates, files, promotional stress balls, pens and other signs of decay.

“Randy, wait!” She yelled as she saw a man run through another set of closing doors. “That son of a bitch...”

“Well, like you said. A lot’s changed.” Becky said and Alexa felt very tempted to hit her with a stress ball.

They finally reach the atrium after coming up with plan that involved the both of them splitting up and not running directly to the gunfire. Alexa providing Becky temporary access to open doors, signing her up as a new employee, Alexa got through a back door taking them by surprise while Becky opened the main door and started shooting them as well.

“That’s the last of them.”

“Nope, there’s one more. I saw Randy go scurrying into the office up there.” Like the rat that he was. Guess she should’ve believed her wife when she told her her side of the story after the gate incident.

“Wait here. I’ll bring him to you.” Becky sounded almost giddy about it. Alexa stood back and let her, fully expecting her to bring Randy full of bruises, maybe a bloody nose. To her surprise she brought him without a scratch. As Alexa walked closer to him she saw he looked better that any other person in this new world. Motherfucker.

“All the dead people outside, Randy. You know, the ones you shot in the head.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about...” He tried to explain but was stopped mid sentence when Alexa pressed her gun to his temple.

“I mean, what was it, huh? What were they trying to do? Get home to their families? Maybe bring them back here?You didn’t want that, did you?’ She said as she pressed the gun harder.

“We just couldn’t take the risk.” He gasped out. “You don’t understand!”

Alexa could hear Becky pacing behind her, because she wanted her to know she was there. Regardless of what she would do, she wanted her to know she would be supporting her.

“You don’t have to do this. Let me go.”

“I’m sorry. We just can’t take the risk.” She pulled the trigger before he had realized how prepared she was to do it. Alexa didn’t turned to look at Becky, she didn’t want to. She was scared of what she’d see. But she had to understand right? She had done what she’d done and so had Alexa.

“C’mon. Let’s get to the lab.”

\--------------------

After dealing with Orton they disabled the security protocols opening all doors and finally turning off the annoying alarm. They have yet to speak or say something to each other, Becky knowing how it feels to kill someone in cold blood and Alexa simply not wanting to acknowledging in fear of what Becky could say.

As they opened the doors to the lab Alexa walked in first her resolve stopping the moment she walked in after all this years. She looks around in remembrance of her time here, another life, another her. But then remembrance turned into an unsettling emotion the more she looked around the more she looked at the new test tubes and the labels.

“It’s all true. I didn’t want to believe it.” She lamented. Still looking around shocked, feeling like someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on her. She had heard the rumors when she was working here but she didn’t believe them, because they wouldn’t that right? they wouldn’t use her or her research, she signed a contract right?

“What...what do you mean?” Becky asked carefully standing a few steps behind Alexa, giving her space.

“This is my fault.” The blonde croaked as she kept walking further into the lab.

“I...I don’t understand. Your fault?” The redhead stood by near the door watching the blonde walk.

“I should’ve seen it when I first went in.” The blonde sniffled as her eyes teared up. “I mean we used to grow wild ginger and...and grape root here.” She continued as she turned around to look at Becky. “And then all of this changed. They sealed everything off, they took away my clearance... and David kept telling me, he kept telling me that something was wrong…”

“Okay, okay who’s David?” Becky asked calmly. She could see her wife was staring to spiral so she offered a question, a way to slow her down to give her something to focus on.

“David Gorman...he...we was a research intern.” She paused looking at the floor. “You know what I said? I told him we’re pharm and we’re...we’re…high tech and all that shit.” She chuckled humorlessly, shaking her head. Not believing her own stupidity. “And that they were billions of dollars at stake and to just leave it alone.”

The redhead walked slowly towards the pacing blonde, a calm but confused look on her face. Patiently letting the blonde speak and listening.

“Then he didn’t listen.” She affirmed and stopped her pacing. “He hacked the system, he got behind the firewall, he told me that this was some sort of classified project or something, I don’t know…”

“Okay, classified project...just slow do…”

“He wanted to be the next Edward Snowden.” She said firmly as she turned around to look at Becky, making her understand. “You see he wanted to blow the lid of the entire thing ‘David Gorman exposes Evil Plans and Saves the World’ and all that shit. And I didn’t listen to him, Becky. I told him that he was being paranoid.” She said her voice full of remorse and anger. “So he must’ve broken in here and gotten some samples of whatever the hell they were actually cooking here.” She shook her head, her voice breaking.

“Wait...I don’t understand, what...what do you mean?” The redhead asked as she walked closer to the blonde so only a couple of steps were separating them.

“I pieced it together myself a little while later. The night I was stabbed, before you got here I was trying to look for David in the offices but he was already gone. He’d been gone for two weeks.” She paused to take a breath trying to keep it together. “There was this big Green Expo in Portland. He must’ve gone to see a reporter. He was probably infected and didn’t even know it yet.” She whimpered.

“Oh my God.” The redhead whispered, the understanding of the anecdote falling on to her like bricks.

“And two days later… two days later, everybody at that conference was infected. And then they all got on planes and they went home. And a week later two and half people were dead”

“Lexi, this isn’t… this couldn’t be your fault.” She tried to follow the blonde’s eyes so she could look at her and see that she did mean it. “ You couldn’t have stopped him. How could you have stopped...”

“You don’t understand! My research was a part of this!” Alexa snapped. “Becky, I was a part of this, they...they used me.” The blonde sobbed and the redhead couldn’t stop herself anymore and gently pulled her closer wrapping her in her arms, the blonde clinged to her without hesitation, burying her face in her wife’s chest, her hand grabbing at her jacket pulling her close while she poured out her emotions. The redhead held her firmly, one arm around her while her other hand was pressed lightly against her hair.

In that moment all of it made sense, the insistence of Alexa to stay, her urgency whenever she gave her a requisition form, how she got angry and frustrated when she couldn’t find a break through, they way somehow all conversations went back to her research, how she spoke sympathetically about the freakers, speaking of them as if they were still humans. The blonde’s sole focus was in her research, she need to fix this, needed to find a way to get rid of the virus, one way or another.

They stayed like that for a while, Becky holding her while she whispered assurances on her ear. When the blonde calmed down she pulled back and looked at her wife, the redhead arms still on her waist.

“You gonna be okay?” Becky asked softly, one of her hand tucking a strand of hair behind the blonde’s ear. The softly whipping off her tears.

The blonde sniffled a nodded with a small smile.  
“Okay.” She said returning the smile. “So grab your fancy synth-whatever the fuck and let’s go.”

\------------------------

“Hey… hold on.”

“What’s wrong?” Alexa asked, her arms full holding the DNA Synthesizer.

“Uh… the electric fences, how do I turn them off?” Becky asked before they could get on the bike.

“Um there’s a power building next to the greenhouses why?”

“Okay...it’s just there’s a lot of food here and water, thought I could maybe radioing Charlie, let her and Sasha...let Lost Lake camp know. Maybe they can come here for supplies or maybe the can move the camp here ya’ know?”

Alexa stared at Becky for a few seconds as she was analysing her, her actions, was Becky thinking of going back to her friends anytime soon?

“Maybe...we could come here...you and me I mean, once you finish your project.” Becky said hopefully yet sincerely and Alexa loved her even more for that, the redhead never failed in showing her support and truly and honestly believe in her.

Alexa didn’t answer, she didn’t know how, so she simply gave Becky a small smile.

“You think you can load that up?”

“Sure.” She responds simply and the redhead places her hand on the blonde’s arm squeezing it softly telling her she’ll be over there by the greenhouse and that she’ll be back soon.

This gave Alexa time to think, this time with Becky was revealing, she realized she was holding back from her because in her mind she was still clinging to the old them, she was resentful that she could no longer have that, but throughout this time since Becky came back she realized they are both different people and they can learn to be them again while getting to know each other again. Telling Becky the truth was liberating, lifting a huge weight from her chest, hopefully the redhead with now understand why she needed to stay, hopefully this would mean a new beginning for them.

Once Becky turned off the electric fence, she walked back outside and looked at the sky as snow began to fall, she pulled out her radio and took a deep breath before making the call.

“Uh..Charlie..it’s Becky..you there.”

“Lost Lake Camp anyone copy?”

_“Becky? Becky...is that you?”_

Becky smiles at the sound of her best friends voice, it’s been a while. “Hey, Chucky.”

_“God, Becks. It’s so good to hear from you.”_

“Trust me, the feeling is mutual, listen Charlie I don’t have a lot of time so...uh… you remember the research facility where Alexa used to work at? The one by Iron Butte?”

_“Yeah…”_

“Okay, listen, there’s food here and a lot of it, tell Hunter or Sasha to send someone here.”

_“Wait, Becks, you found her? You found Alexa?!”_

At this Becky smiles. “Yes, Charlie. I found her.”

_“Holy shit! Dude! that’s... wow… Becks that’s awesome. Are you bringing her back? When?”_

“Yeah...about that...It’s a long story that I don’t want to get into right now, but um...it might take awhile before we are back.”

_“Becks... tell her...tell her….that you be safe okay? and...that I can’t wait to see her.”_

“Okay, Chucky, I’ll tell her.”

\--------

A few minutes later the snow seems to increase so Becky and Alexa leave the facility to try and make it over the pass before the weather gets worse, they keep riding until the snow starts falling heavily and Becky is not able to see the road, so they make a stop at an old cabin, making sure there’s nothing and no one there before the spend the night there.

The blonde takes the synthesizer inside and then help the redhead push the bike to a more secluded area where she’s able to hide it by some old cars. By the time they get into the cabin they are both freezing and soaking wet, so they decide to clear out the chimney as much as the can to start a fire and each take off their clothes laying them near the fire for drying. The both of them now in their underwear sitting close to each other by the fire.

“Thank you.” Becky says after a while and the blonde looks at her questiongly. “For letting me in.”

The blonde looks down at her lap at this. “I…” She pauses and takes a deep breath closing her eyes getting her thoughts in order. “I’m sorry for that...it’s just…” She rearranged so that her body is turned towards Becky. “Becky you left. You left me.” The redhead nods her head down, guilty. “And it hurt, it hurt because you made a promise and you broke it. You left me there and I had no idea if I’d ever see you again. Days, weeks, months passed and I couldn’t let you go and eventually I got angry because how dare you leave me, and then I discovered the truth about my research and I got more angry because that meant that ultimately the blame fell on to me, because my research caused this, caused the virus to spread to all those people, to that kid that stabbed me, to...the possible cause of your death.”

Becky keeps looking down, but Alexa knows she’s listening, she always does. “And when I got the chance to fix this with the militia I took it, I took it and placed all of my focus and time into that, there was no room for anything else because it was a distraction. I had to build a life without you, do you understand that Becky?”

The redhead looks at her with can only be described as remorse and regret nodding. “And then three years later you come back and you turn my life around...for the second time.” The blonde says with a small smile. “And I didn’t know how to react because I had my life planned out, I had my mission and here you were back from the death and asking me to leave as if nothing had changed, but it had. The world had change, I was...am a different person and I didn’t know who you were in this new world. And I felt overwhelmed, I was angry, I was confused I… I didn’t know how to react so I pushed you away.”

Becky stares at her, listening her face full of understanding. Alexa grabs her hand in both of hers holding it in her lap. “But that didn’t mean I didn’t want you there, I knew I wanted you there I just didn’t know how to tell you all of this. And the more time we spent together the more I saw that we both had changed but were fundamentally the same you know? Like...it’s a new world and we are both different people but the one thing that didn’t change was my love for you.”

“Lexi, I…” Becky paused and shifted her body so she was too sitting in front of Alexa, her hand still in the blonde’s hands. “When I found out you were alive, I came back to life. I told you this I was just surviving until I got one possible chance and when I saw you again, yes I did expect to see the same you. But you weren’t, obviously. And I struggled to see that, I didn’t get it and I knew you were pushing me away I just didn’t know why and it was frustrating, God was it frustrating.” She says shaking her head. “But I persisted because I did not come all this way to just leave again, and the more we talked, the more we went out together in missions I started to see that yes you had changed, but I didn’t care.” She shrugged. “To me you were...are the same Alexa I got married too. The one who can go on and on about plants, the one who can recite every single disney movie...even after the apocalypse.” This caused both women to chuckle. “You are still Alexa...but with like an edge and I’m fine with that. Because, Lexi, you gotta know all I wanted was for you to let me in. I didn’t care how many requisition forms you gave me, or if you had to yell at cadets or whatever as long as I had you I’d be okay. I just wanted my wife back.”

“You have me, Becks. You really do.” She affirmed as she pulled her closer for a kiss and her wife responded almost immediately, everything else simply melting away from their minds. She moved in closer, pressing her lips against Becky’s almost desperately, and felt that desperation and need reciprocated with dizzying intensity.

Becky gently pushes her back until she’s laying on top of her, leaving her lips briefly and Alexa was left breathing heavily as Becky knelt before her slowly, her hand pulling down the blonde’s underwear effortlessly as though they weren’t there at all and Becky let out a pleased sigh when she saw Alexa naked before her; the blonde followed through and helped the redhead take off her underwear, Becky then pressed a gentle kiss onto Alexa’s stomach, and felt the blonde quiver beneath her touch. She gently kissed her way up to press her lips against her wife’s.

It was a new beginning, one they were both excited for.


	16. You Alone I Have Seen

“Wait...you want one alive?” Becky asked incredulously. 

“Kinda hard to to run some tests on something dead.” The blonde responded taking a tranquilizer and loading it into the tranquilizer gun. “Here.” She turned to the redhead giving her the gun, with a smile.

“What’s this for?” The redhead questioned as she takes the gun and looks at it.

“It’s a special tranquilizer, it will knock them down long enough for you to get it back here.” 

“You sound way to excited about this.”

“I’m so close, Becks. This could be it.” She said excited.

The two of them look at each other for a few seconds before Becky nods with small smile and salutes. “Yes, ma’am.” 

A while later Becky has just got out of the camp, when Alexa calls her out on the radio.

_ “Hey, Becks, you there? _

“I’m here, on my way to get you that newt.”

_ “Right...sooo...there’s a tiny detail I forgot to mention...There’s an specific one that I need.” _

“Whoa, Lexi. What?... a specific newt?”

_ “Yes...so any away.. not far from here there’s an old cabin overlooking the lake, there’s a colony of infected kids...uh...newts.” _

“Colony of newts?” She asked chuckling. “Now that I gotta see.”

_ “Just call me when you get there.” _

Things had been good with the both of them, it had been around two weeks since the cabin and thing where smoothing over, communication definitely helped. Alexa radioed Becky through the private channel when she was out on runs, and the privacy Alexa was privileged with gave them a closed door lab to let their defensed down at least a little bit. Telling Becky the truth about what happened with the virus and opening up about what she had to do to survive really did lift a weight from Alexa’s shoulder and listening to Becky telling her, her own stories helped the blonde to ease up on her defenses. As she had said before Becky had away to get through her wall like no one else could.

Becky now understanding Alexa’s reasoning to stay at the camp and her laser focus into getting her project to work was now less defensive, less anxious to be there and definitely more willing to help. Like they say communication goes a long a way.

A short while later Becky was now parked in front of the house and just like Alexa mentioned there was a small colony of newts there, from what she could count on there were like 10 to 15 newts hanging around there. After a quick call to her wife she was meant to get a ‘young, female with a red shirt.’ so here Becky was planning how to get the specific newt without having to kill the rest as per her wife’s request. 

Ultimately what she did was shoot the newt from a distance putting to sleep instantly while she threw an attractor to the other side of the cabin, this attractor was simply an alarm clock, the noise distracted the newts long enough for Becky to get in and out of the cabin with the newt. 

“What…” Becky sniffs as soon as she gets to the camp and gets off her bike quickly once she realizes what the smell is. “Ahhh.. fuckin...Jesus Christ…Uh… Hey Captain.” She tried to say casually when she saw the Captain walk towards her with an amused smile. “It pissed all over my bike.”

“Right…” She chuckled. “The colonel doesn’t allow pets on the island, Im afraid.” She said covering her nose.

“The..uh..Lt. needed a live test subject so…” She gestured to the newt hanging limp on the back of her bike. 

“You two seemed to be getting along well...you and the Lt.”

“Uh...just doin’ my job, ma’am.” She answered quickly, trying to appear as calm as possible.

“Just keep it professional, the Colonel does not allow for any fraternization between enlisted officers and soldiers.” 

“Oh, no, no...can’t have any of that ma’am.” She responded agreeing with her.

“Right. Carry on.” She saluted her, Becky doing the same and then carrying the Newt on her shoulder to walk towards Alexa’s Lab.

“Okay, so don’t freak out but I think Captain Stratus might be suspicious about us, also you  better pay me double credits for the next run I do for ya’ cause this thing pissed all over my bike.”  Becky finished as she placed the newt on the examination table on Alexa’s wife.

“Okay, first of all what? why? Second of all not my fault you didn’t prepped properly.” Alexa greeted Becky back, putting some gloves on and strapping the newt on the table.

“She couldn’t help but notice our wonderful chemistry and asked me to keep it professional, and before you ask, no, I didn’t put my foot in my mouth, I denied the whole thing.” She answered seeing the raised eyebrow on her wife’s face. “And second you wanted this alive, so you are paying me double credits for the clean up.”

“Fine, just hold her still, she’s starting to wake up.” 

Becky holds the new by the arms, trying to keep her from moving to much as the newt starting trashing more and more as she woke up.  “So much for your tranquilizer.”

“Yeah, well her biology is a little fucked up right now what do you wanted me to do.”

“Just, hurry up.”

“Alright this is what I’ve been working on, keep her still.”

“How long?” Becky asked as the newt starting trashing harder once the serum was injected into her body. 

“Just a few seconds.” Her wife answered helping Becky keep the girl still., after a few seconds the girl stopped trashing and went limp, blood pouring out of her ears and eyes.

“Oh shit.” Becky gasped. “Holy shit. I don’t know what you put into that but this thing went down fast.” She continued still in shock, Alexa only staring at the floor shaking her head.

“Damn it!” Alexa exclaimed, trashing the few things scattered around on her desk.  Becky looking at her confused, meanwhile the blonde remained leaning her weight on her hands looking at the desk surface.

“Wait...Lexi, you are not makin’ a bio-weapon are you, love?” She asked the blonde shaking her head in response. “You are trying to cure it?”

Alexa sighs still rooted in place. “I thought once I got the original cell line from Cloverdale, that I could create antibodies from the virus and I could reverse engineer it…” She explained turning around to look at Becky. “And now all of that work, everything I have worked for is fo nothing.” She says angrily walking over to the examination table. “I can’t save them. Nothing’s gonna be able to bring them back.” 

Becky passes a hand through her hair, taking it all in, then nodding. “So you try again.”

“Did you not see what just happened?” Alexa asked angry. “Every cell in that kid’s body ju…”

“That’s exactly why you are trying again.” Becky interrupted her pointing a finger. 

“What?”

“Because you call it a kid.” She paused looking at the newt. “Lexi, do you have any idea how many of those things I’ve killed?” Taking Alexa’s silence as a hint to go on. “I don’t even know how many and it’s never occurred to me that, that used to be someone’s kid.”

Becky took a few steps closer to stand besides Alexa by the examination table. “You know I met someone a few months back who used to talk about them the same way you do. Nikki. She used to call them sick people and I thought that was crazy…”

“So you think I’m crazy?” Alexa asked defensively.

“Put the laser beam eyes away, love.” Becky said calmly understanding how much this is affecting her wife. “Honestly, I think you are the first sane person I’ve seen in years.” She says smiling. “You know I still remember the night that I lost you, but… I’m starting to realize it wasn’t the night that I left you on the chopper. It was the next night.” At this Alexa looks up to her curiously, so Becky takes a deep breath and continues. “Me and Charlie, we rode into that refugee camp that you were supposed to be in right? Except there’s freakers everywhere, the choppers are on fire, there’s people screamin’, and so we fought and somehow we made it, and what do we get? Bodies, bodies everywhere.” 

The redhead starts pacing remembering that night. “And I checked every corpse, every face, and there was probably hundreds or them maybe more. And I checked. Every. Single. One. That was the night that I lost you.” And all Alexa can do is stare at her wife a pained look in her eyes, her heart hurting just by the thought of Becky having to do that. “And Charlie, Charlotte she was uh.. she was just tryin’ to keep me together for the next three years, but I didn’t give shit about any of it.” She said chuckling. “You see that’s why you are you, because while I was out there just tryin’ to survive, not caring about anything or anyone, you are here, in a horrible militia camp, with a crazy man leading it, trying to save the world.” 

“Yeah, well I’m not doing a very good job.” Alexa whispered. 

Becky walks closer to her  and looks at her directly in the eyes.“So you get up. You dust yourself up. And you try again.”  She whispers back with a small smile. “We are going back to Cloverdale. We are going to take as much equipment as you need and we are going to search deeper into their research.” 

“You would that? Help me?”

“Yeah I would, because you believe in this..”  

Alexa stares at Becky for a few seconds and then turns around away from her. “We’ll ride north.” She says and the turns back to the redhead. “We’ll tell them we are going on a supply run, and we are not coming back.”

“What? Are you...what?” 

“You said so yourself, Cloverdale has better equipment, and it has food and water and electrical defenses, Becky we can go there and build a new life up there. One you don’t hate and one where I can work on this freely, with no supply limits.” Alexa spoke quickly but full of conviction.

“If you are sure... I’m all in. Always.” Becky confirms.

“You know if the catch us, we are dead right?” 

“Then we die together.” 

“Lt. Bliss.” Their staring contest gets interrupted by a soldier calling out from outside the lab.

Clearing her throat Alexa responds. “Come in.” 

“Corporal Lynch, the colonel is looking for you.”

“I’ll be there in a second.” Becky nods as the soldiers walks out the room. “Pack everything that you need but keep it light, we’ll leave once I come back.” She tells Alexa quietly.

“Hey.” Alexa grabs a hold of Becky’s hand, holding her back. “Thank you.” She says squeezing her hand.

“Yes, ma’am.” She responds with a wink, and Alexa feels maybe being called ‘Ma’am’ isn’t as bad as she thought.

\----------------------

“Lt. Is it all ready?”

“Colonel, Sir. Yes, everything is locked and loaded.”  Naomi saluted along with Captain Stratus and Becky who were all standing near the gate.

It was late at night and Becky could see a couple of boxes laying around, one was loaded onto Captain Stratus’s bike, the other one was on the floor, by the engineer’s feet. 

“Uh.. what’s locked and loaded?” Becky asked eyeing the boxes curiously.

“Lt. Fatu’s weapon is finished and we are ready to test it.” The colonel responded taking out what looked like a molotov but a bigger version. Must’ve been the napalm explosive Becky tried out with her on the bonfire.

“Are you ready to burn down a horde, Corporal?” The Captain asked.

“Whoa...hold on, hold on… a horde?”  Becky asked surprised, looking at everybody.

“Something wrong, Corporal?” The Colonel looked at Becky daringly.

“Uh..no. No...all good. Let’s burn down a horde.” She tried to say enthusiastically, I mean how hard could it be right? Kill and burn around 500 freakers at once. Easy Peasy.

A while later they were approaching Chemult Road, there wasn’t much to it, just a gas station, convenience store, an autoshop and a motel. Oh yeah and an old train yard where the horde comes out at night and...just stays there, together only moving when a potential meal came close.

“Okay, so what’s a game plan here?” Becky asks the captain as soon as they get there, they stop by a small cliff overlooking Chemult’s road where they can see the horde moving from their hiding place to the train yard. The captain was looking at the horde through her binoculars, Becky doing the same thing.

“You’ve been in the shit more than I have, Corporal. What do you suggest?” 

Becky observes the horde for a bit, she moves to another spot to have a better view of the train yard, there’s an abandoned convenience store at the edge of the yard, she could see it was two stories so probably there was an apartment on top of the store, if that was the case they could sneak in there quietly and throw the napalm molotovs from there.

“Do you have any attractors?” She asks. Attractors once again could be anything that could make noise, alarm clocks, watches, old electronic toys, if it made noise by pressing a button long enough to attract freakers then it was an attractor. “I think our best bet would be stealth if we go in gun blazing I don’t think we’ll last long before the horde tears us apart.”

“I agree.” The Captain responded. “I have some in my saddlebags.” She continued, answering Becky’s first question. At the response Becky starts explaining to her the plan, sneak through the store’s front door and make as little noise as possible, once they have a good vantage point they throw attractor causing the freakers to go all over each other then they could throw the napalm molotov causing it to explode and set fire to several freakers, and then it was a matter of repeating the same step over and over again.

Together the Captain and Becky follow her plan and soon enough they are out of molotovs, but thankfully what’s left other than the horrid smell and smoke is a few freaker that the both of them are able to kill with their guns. Becky thinks maybe she should’ve been a stunt double or something in her past life if the amazing feeling of adrenaline is anything to go by.

After is all said and done both are leaning their weight on their knees catching their breath.

“I can’t believe it, we took down an entire horde.” Captain Stratus says amazed and proudly with a smile on her face.

“Yeah! Easy Peasy right? Really gets the adrenaline flowing”

“Colonel’s right, maybe we can win this war.”

\---------------------------------

“Lt. I have the thing...Colonel.” Becky walked into Alexa’s camp to find in empty, just the Colonel standing there. “Sir.” She saluted. “Where is uh.. the Lt.?”

“All essential personnel doing R&D have been moved.”

“Moved?” Not again, Becky thinks. “Where? Because I brought these supplies she needed.”

“I understand.” The Colonel responds, standing straight with his hands behind his back. He takes a couple of steps closer to Becky staring down at her. “There’s been...uh…” Sighing he walks past the door and slightly turns his head towards Becky. “Walk with me.”

Meanwhile in the caves within the camp’s mountain, Alexa has been pacing in her new assigned “lab” inside the cave, it was cold, dark, and she couldn’t work like that, not to mention the Colonel had assigned a full time guard to be with her at all times keeping her there.

“Vince, you can’t do this. You can’t keep me locked in here!” Is what she says as soon as she sees the Colonel walk in. The guard holding her back. 

“At ease Captain.” He orders calmly, he then placed his hand on Alexa’s should and spoke calmly. “And then the Lord said to Noah, enter the ark, you and all your household. For you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.” 

“What…? The blonde asked confused. “Vince, what are you talking about?” 

“I’m sorry, Lt.”  Was the last thing he said before walking away leaving a confused Becky and an angry Alexa behind. The blonde trying to follow only to be held back by her guard. 

“Colonel...you can’t! Wait!” 

“Hey!” Becky exclaimed when she saw the guard refused to let go of the blonde, walking closer to him.

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” Alexa said trying to calm down, the last thing she needed was for the both of them to get in trouble. They needed a plan to get out of there ASAP.

“I uh… got the supplies you asked for.” Becky said, side-eying the guard.

“Thank you, follow me.” She took the supplies from Becky and the both of them walked further into the cave chamber. “I’ve been working on a new assignment. Poison this time.” She said loudly. Being here meant playing the game, and the game required for her to act careless towards the freakers.

“Be careful when you pick this, if you don’t it will kill you.” She said writing on the requisition form. 

“Understood.” The redhead answered. Then looked at the guard seeing how he finally turned his back on them, she lowered her voice. “I’m gonna get you out of here.” She whispered.

“Thank you.”  The blonde responded softly.

“Yes. Ma’am.” Becky said, once again raising her voice and left the cave chamber.

Walking further she walks into what she thinks is the way out but turns out to be  the Colonel’s chamber, bigger, darker with a bookshelf on one side, a bed on the other and a table with a tea set on it illuminated by a lamp hanging above it. 

“Colonel! I uh… think I got lost…”

“You know when I was young, we used to explore caves like this.” He says, interrupting Becky. He then pauses and takes a drink out of his tea. “Looking for petroglyphs, carvings by the Modoc or other tribes. Thousands of years old.” He stops to take another zip. “You know, they never lived in this caves. The heathens. In the cold, in the dark.  And now look at us, look how far we’ve fallen.” 

“Colonel… I don’t…”

“The soldier who used to be assigned to LT. Weaver and Bliss, the soldier you replaced has gone AWOL. He broke into my chambers and took my personal copy of the Holy Bible. First Doctor Daniel, now this.” He sighs. “I’m starting to see our enemy has never been the freakers, but ourselves. Contention is needed, Corporal. If we want to win this war we need to keep this camp free of corruption and to do that a close watch with all of its members need to be maintained.” 

“O..kay.” 

“I want that soldier back, Corporal.”

“Yes, sir.”

\---------------------

Becky spent a couple of days finishing up the Colonel’s request and getting Alexa what she needed all while thinking about a good plan to get out of the camp, they needed to do it fast, leaving no trace behind. As far as Becky knew they didn’t know there’s a way over the pass, and the plans of clearing the tunnels were not meant to be actioned anytime soon.

Thankfully the plan takes form when Zayn contacts her again, this time needing her to look into a cave for four members of his team that went it to get sample of a very evolved freaker, very fast and very lethal. Becky makes a deal, she goes in into the cave, with the lethal freaker and possibly a horde, look for his team and he picks her and Alexa from the camp with a chopper as long as Becky manages to get rid of the rocket launchers.  Now all she needed was a way to communicate this plan to Alexa.

“Lt.” Becky calls out, saluting.

“Corporal.”

“I brought the stuff you asked for.” She gestured to the package in her hands, wrapped in plastic to keep from touching the plants directly.

“Good, I hope you were careful these are very toxic.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I was.” They kept the conversation going until they were at the other side of the lab, where they could lower their voice and not look or sound suspicious. 

“Okay, listen I gotta plan. I don’t have time to explain. But the next time I’m here be sure you are ready to get the hell out of here.” Becky whispers quickly. “I’ll get going now, Lt.” She raises her voice again and salutes.

“Corporal wait.” Alexa calls out before her wife can walk away and takes a requisition form from her desk. “I didn’t say thank you this time.” She said smirking once Becky took the form.

Becky chuckled and then turned around to leave, once she was outside she took a look at the requisition form and saw there was no requests in there only a message:

 

_ I never stopped loving you.  _

_                                             - Lexi _

 

Becky smiles and then takes off to take care of Zayn business.

\-------------------

A couple of days later having let Zayn known everything was taken care off, it was time to leave.

“Soldier can’t you look at something else… I can’t work like this.” 

“Sorry, Ma’am. Colonels orders, I’m meant to keep eyes on the whole time.”

“Oh fuck the Colonel’s orders!” She says angrily.

“Hey, watch your mouth.” He responds. “Things are changing in here, and soon we…”

He gets interrupted by Becky sneaking up behind him to strangle him enough to put him to sleep. She carefully lowers him to the ground and pulls him further into the lab to hide the body behind some boxes. “Make sure we are clear.” 

The blonde nods and heads outside her cave chamber. “Okay, we are clear.”

“Good, grab your stuff we are leavin’.”  She says hurriedly. 

“How are we getting out here? there are guards everywhere and we…”

“Hey.” Becky says and placed her hands on the blonde’s shoulder, calming her on coming questions. “Do you trust me?”  

Alexa looks into Becky’s eyes for a second and then nods, taking off to grab her things.

“Zayn, you there?” Becky calls out from her radio.

_ “I’m here.” _

“Okay, good. We are headin’ up to the cone, we got one shot at this.”

_ “Copy that, we are heading there.”  _

“Who’s Zayn? Where are we going?” The blonde asks walking back to Becky, her backup on her bag and her gun secured in her holster.

“Ginger snaps. The dude that helped me find you. You got everything? ‘cuz we are not comin’ back.” 

“Yeah. Let’s go.” 

“Good. Stay close and remember if anyone sees us…”

“Hey..” The blonde interrupts Becky pulling her down by her shirt collar for a kiss that left the redhead a little bit dazed. “In case it wasn’t clear in the cabin or in my note.” And with a wink she leaves Becky behind who was looking at her with a smirk.

A whole lot of sneaking later they finally find themselves up top the mountain, where hopefully Zayn would be arriving soon.

“Okay, we made it.”

“Where is it? Where is he? Where is Zayn?” Alexa asks quickly looking at the sky for signs of the chopper.

“He’ll be here.” The redhead responded looking at the sky as well. “We just need to uh…”

“Shit.”

“Gentlemen, this is the top of the mountain where you can see an amazing view and… Lt.” The Colonel walks out of a tent followed by three other guys. “I was just showing the new recruits here the island. We were just going down the ark, you should join us.”

“I...well…”

“Gentlemen, this is Lt. Bliss, she’s part of the research team exploring ways to defeat the freakers.”

And because nothing ever goes to plan, the last person to walk out of the cabin crosses looks with Becky as soon as he’s out. 

“Corbin.”

 


	17. We Are Not Hiding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, my anxiety has been acting up and it has not been fun, but here's another chapter I hope to get the next finished sooner this time. Enjoy!

Listen it was great plan, it really was. Get rid of the RPGs, go up the cone and wait for a helicopter to get Becky and her wife the hell out of there. Plain and simple. But no, fucking Corbin had to make his appearance and send to entire plan to hell. Because yes, the chopper did show up, but the moment Corbin saw Becky he launched at her but was stopped by the soldiers accompanying the Colonel. Becky and Lexi had guns pointed at them and in that timeframe the chopper came and left quickly as the soldiers around started shooting at them.

So yeah. Fucking Corbin.

“Vince, I told you already we were going on a supply run…” 

“Don’t listen to her, Lynch is murderer and a spy…”

“Why would you listen to him over me, Vince...you know me.”

“Remember that camp I told you about? The leader of the camp Hunter sent me here.”

Becky could only sigh and shake her head as she remained sitting down, hand tied behind her back, in the middle of the Colonel’s quarters. Her wife and Corbin speaking over each other beggin for the Colonel to listen to either if them. She appreciated alexa trying, but they had to be honest, the Colonel didn’t trust Alexa as much as he had before. Otherwise he wouldn’t have kept her locked up inside the cave.

“ENOUGH!” The Colonel banged his hand against his desk making both Corbin and Alexa quiet down. “Alright, I’m listening.” He said calmly while looking at Corbin.

“I’m telling you she’s a spy, we figure it out quickly back at the camp and I was sent here to warn you, if you don’t believe me have her show us her back.” 

“Thou shalt not against thy neighbor.” The Colonel said slowly standing up from his place and walking around the desk to stand before the two of them. “Let’s see if what you are saying is true.” He turned to Corbin and pointed at him speaking through his teeth angrily. “Tell me what you saw and don’t lie to me, son. I’ll know.”

“At Lost Lake Camp, she attacked an unarmed woman and several others, she wasn’t wearing a shirt only a tank top where you could see a tattoo on her back. It was confirmed by the camp’s doctor as she had seen it during one of her evaluations. It’s of a woman riding a horse with flames as a mane and tail. We managed to stop her but who knows what would’ve happened had we not seen that.”

Becky scuffed and chuckled .”You are so full of shit, Corbin.”

“You make her show us her back and you’ll know I’m telling you the truth.”

The Colonel made a motion to one of the soldiers to stand Becky up and remove her shirt, leaving her in her tank top which was then ripped at the back to show her tattoo. All Alexa could do was closed her eyes in defeat, there was no way out of this one.  As Becky turned around she hanged her head low, knowing full well they were screwed.  

“You wear the image of one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, how fitting.” The Colonel said, staring at the tattoo with disdain. “You came here dressed in angelic clothes but you are not an Angel, you are Judas!” He yelled turning Becky around.

“He’s lying! He got kicked out of the camo so he…” 

“Shut up!” The Colonel said, punching her in the stomach, he then turned to Alexa and pointed at her angrily. “What about you LT.? Where you lying to? How long have you been spying us.”

“Vince, I’m not spying, you know me you…”

“LIES!” He yelled, taking out his gun. “I spected soldiers to lie to me but an officer?”

“Colonel…” Said Stratus who was holding Alexa by the arms, trying to calm the situation down. 

“Stop!, it was me.” Becky said from her place on the floor, breathing heavily.  “It was me, I lied.” 

The Colonel turned his head to look at Becky, his gun lowering lightly.

“Lt. Bliss had nothing to do with it, I forced her.”  She continues.

“Becks…” Alexa said quietly.

Still on her knees, head down and eyes closed Becky continued. “If you go through my bag, you’ll find a radio. Because I called them. I lied to the LT. and I told her I needed her to help me check a shipment but truth is I just needed a hostage.”  She finished sighing.

The Colonel went thought Becky’s thing pulling out a radio, turning it on and as if on cue Zayn’s voice came through. 

_ “Becky Lynch, drifter, are you there? This is NERO Zayn are you there?” _

The Colonel sighed angrily and threw the radio to the ground stepping on it. He then turned to Alexa staring at her apologetically. “I’m sorry, my dear.” He said softly.

“Stratus, take this drifter here to lock up. Tomorrow at oh-seven-hundred she will stand trial and she will hang.” 

“Yes, Sir.”

“Now, Baron was it? Come with me. Lt you too, we have work to do.” And we that he placed his arm around Corbin walking the both of them out of his quarters, Alexa walking slowly behind them.

She walked by Becky, looking down at her the later raised her head lightly and gave her a longing look.

“Come on get up.” The Captain said, ushering Alexa away.

As Becky stood up she kept looking at Alexa walking away and then nothing but blackness.

\-------------------

 

Becky regained consciousness and found herself laying on soft grass, she shook her head a bit and turned to her side seeing Captain Stratus sitting in front of a fire, a couple of soldiers nearby. 

“Oh good you are awake.” She said as soon as she saw Becky turning to her side.

“What the fuck?” Becky said slowing sitting up holding the back of her head. Looking around trying to figure out where she was. “Why?”

“That tattoo on your back...that’s not something you see everyday.” She said ignoring her. “I did some digging before everything happened. Call it a hunch.” She continued staring at a four clover ring in her hands. “This was taken from the LT. when she came into the camp.” She hold the ring up and Becky stopped looking everywhere to stare at the ring. “My guess is, it’s yours.”  She finished and tossed the ring back to Becky.

“Yeah, it’s mine.” She said catching the ring and put it on.

“And you wife’s name, it ain’t Kate.” 

“No, it ain’t.” She answers cautiously, still confused as to why she seems to be out of the camp with no restraints.

“And you’ve been out here all this time, looking for her?” 

“Yes I have.”  

“You asked why.” Stratus stood up and walked towards Becky, the latter stood up and walked a few steps backwards. “The way I see it any man or woman who goes through God knows what to find their wife does not deserve to die at the end of rope.” 

“Wait.. wait...wait a second, you are helping me?” 

“I’m letting you go.” The captain responded. “Becky you earned my respect but we are not going back the Colonel is batshit crazy. I mean Holy was? Genocide? What the fuck is that?”

Okay, then. Becky thought it was more than clear the Captain was definitely over and done the whole militia camp thing. 

“So what are you gonna do?” The redhead asked, her hand going the back of her head, rubbing it.

“We are riding east, hoping we can make it to Reno, wanna come with?”

“No. I have to go back.”

“Becky, they will shoot you on sight…”

“I’m not leaving without her, Captain.” Becky interrupted loudly. “I went through hell and back to find her. I’m not giving up now.”  She started pacing and talking to herself. “I need to ride north, warn Hunter, get Charlie…”

“Becky… the tunnels where cleared out last night, if your people is up north they don’t have much time before the militia gets to them. So I’ll ask again, are you sure you don’t wanna come with us?” 

“I have to get her back.” 

“Okay, then I wish you nothing but luck.” Trish said sincerely and walked to get on her bike.

“Hey..uh...Trish…” Becky cleared her through as the woman looked back. “When I told the Colonel about my time in the army, I told him I hate it every damn minute of it, but uh… maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad had I served under someone like you.” She said honestly and salute her. The Captain doing the same thing before turning around to get on bike and leave with her crew.

Becky stared at the ring on her hand and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry Lexi, I can’t save you right now but I’m coming back for you. I promise.”  She took a deep breath and got on her bike. First things first warn Hunter and hopefully get the camps help to get Lexi back.

\------------

“Charlie, you there?” Becky called out from her radio as she passed the now clear tunnel, definitely easier to pass through than over the pass. “Sasha? Bayley? Anybody there?”

_ “Becks… It’s good to hear you breathing. “ _

_ “Get them inside! Bayley help them.” _

“Charlie! Listen to me… Corbin he found me and he’s coming for you guys.”

_ “They are coming in through the gate.  Look out!”  _

Becky could hear the sound of gunshots in the background, maybe she was too late with the warning.  

_ “Let him come, Becks. Let him come.” _

“Charlie! Hang on...I’m almost there.” 

Speeding up she made her way towards Lost Lake camp but to her surprise when she got there, not fighting was going on, she could see bodies around her and bullet holes in the buildings, quickly she got of her bike and ran up to the main Lodge building where she could see Sasha pacing and other campers sitting down or taking care of the wounded. 

“Sasha.” She called out, surprising the other woman, 

“Becky, thank God.” She said walking towards her. “It’s Hunter...he got shot.”  She said and started walking away, Becky following behind her.

Sasha walked in the cabin where Hunter was laying down and held his hand. Bayley by her side. Walking behind her Becky cleared her throat to talk to him. 

“Hey Trips…I uh...came here to see if you wanted to go fishing we have a camp to feed.” 

Hunter chuckled but due to his injuries he started coughing making Sasha hold his hand tighter. “You found her? Your wife?” He asked weakly.

“Yeah...she’s uh...right outside.” She responde quietly. The last thing the man needed was to find out she  found her only to lose her again. The man deserved to hear something good on his last moments. “I wouldn’t have done it without your help.

“That’s...good….that’s good.” Hunter said out breath.  “I was wrong, Becky.”

“Hunter… it’s fine we can talk about this la…”

“I was wrong.” He said again, his coughs getting worse with blood coming out of his mouth each time. “You...you...do what you have to...to...to keep this camp safe.”  

“Yes, Trips. I uh… I promise.” 

“Sasha” He said. 

“I’m here Hunter, I’m here.” She assured holding his hand and as if that was all he needed his hold went weaker and his head rolled to the side succumbing to his injuries. 

“Sash…” Bayley said, grabbing her by the shoulder as the woman cries silently. Becky looked down trying to keep her tear at bay. Even if her and Hunter didn’t always agree, he was like a father to her. During her time here before becoming a drifter and after the man always took care of her. Talking to her about his past life, his relationship with his wife, with Finn, with Beth every time they went fishing, so yes Hunter was one more victim of the shithole this had become, except this time it wasn’t the freakers no, this time the killer had a name, and their name was Baron fucking Corbin.

“You need to talk to the camp.” Sasha said after a while surprising both Bayley and Becky.

“What? Sasha I can’t...I’m not…” Becky quickly shook her head.

“Yes you can, Becky. Despite your differences I know there is one person whose opinion actually mattered to him and that’s you, you promised him to take care of the camp, so now you have to.”  She said seriously, then her eyes soften. “I’m right behind you, Becks.” 

\---------------

The three of them walked out to see most of the camp waiting for them, Becky bit her lip and turned back to look at Sasha who nodded in support.

Taking a deep breath she started. “There’s no easy way to say this. so I’m just gonna say it… Hunter’s dead.” 

Quickly everyone started talking amongst themselves, with questions like what? why? while Becky tried to explain.

“Corbin got to him and Hunter being Hunter tried to reason with him and he… ok...SHUT UP!” She yelled seeing how everyone was pretty much ignoring her. “Shut up! This is no euology because Hunter wouldn’t like that. I know who did this, and those men you killed? There are a hell of a lot more where they came from and they will keep coming back unless we hit them first. You can all grieve if you want, get angry but the fact is we have to move if we want to keep the camp alive.” She said pausing and after seeing that everyone was listening she continued. “I have a plan, and it might take a few days, but until then we are keeping are guard up and protecting this camp. I can promise you this, Hunter’s dead will not be in vain.”  With that she turned to Sasha and Bayley.

“Get Charlotte and meet me at our cabin.” 

  
  



	18. We Will Take Back This World

“A fertilizer bomb truck?” 

“Yep.”

“A fucking fertilizer bomb truck?”

“That’s what I said Chucky keep up.”

“How the fuck are we gonna do that?”

“Well we are going to need a lot of poop...er...fertilizer and a shit ton of creosote.” Becky said simply with a small smile on her face.

The horsewomen where in Becky´s and Charlotte´s cabin while the redhead explained to them her plan, she found a blueprint of the dump truck bomb in an old survivalist camp, and seeing how Wizard Mountain Camp was distributed, going in with a boom was the best way to get in,

“Oh my God.” Sasha mumbled. while Bayley only stared at the poorly drawn blueprint on the table. 

“Listen…” Becky began turning the blueprint around to show them an equally poorly drawn map of the military camp. “The militia turned this entire island into a fortress. We have civilians at the caves, the labor force and those ‘unfit’ to server in this area here.” She pointed at the map while the rest of the girls listen carefully. “And the idiots actually placed the armoy and the garrison at the main gate.” She said with a smirk.

“Idiots in deed.” Bayley mumbled. “So if your… ‘map’ is accurate we hit that and the main gate of the camp goes boom.” 

“Yep.” 

“And Alexa?” Charlotte asked carefully. 

The redhead´s voice turned serious at the mention of her name. “Well I...she’s... in the caves. It’s what the Colonel calls The Ark.” 

“Okay… but how do we know he’s not going to kill everyone there...including Alexa?” Sasha asked, it was a hard question but it needed to be asked.

“We don’t…” Becky said somberly.

“But…” Bayley interjected trying to bring their spirits back up. “The explosion from the truck would be sudden, sudden enough that it would take them all by surprise and in the mist of that chaos it’s easy for for us to slip in and attack them before they know what hit ‘em, most of all Becky should be able to slip in and get Alexa back.”

“Besides this isn’t about Alexa anymore...at least not all of it.” Becky turned from where she was staring at the window back to her friends and leaned her weight on the table. “This asshole declared war on all of us when he attacked this camp, when he killed Trips and the asshole got an army to back him up.” 

Sasha and the rest kept quiet, Sasha staring at the floor at the mention of Hunter. Becky sighed and continued “He was just the casualty of that war Sash… and it will be a short one unless…”

“Unless we hit them first.” Charlotte finished.

“I didn’t say it was a good plan.” Becky shrugged.

“No it’s not, it’s a really shitty plan, Becks.” Sasha said.

Becky sighed and turned to Charlotte “You with me, Chuck?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” The blonde responded honestly. Both friends turned to look at the other two waiting for their response.

Sasha sighed and lower her head thinking about it, she then turned to Bayley who nodded with a small smile causing the latter to do the same. “Okay. But we are not going to do this alone.”

“Okay.” Becky nodded. “If anyone wants to join in, you hit ‘em at the south gate. Because when the explosion happens, all of the militia will run to the main gate.” 

“Alright, we got a plan then.” 

Becky and Charlotte smiled throwing up the number four on their hands, Bayley doing the same and staring at Sasha expectantly who only rolled her eyes and threw up the sign as well. “Crazy asses.” 

\-----------

“Lynch, you there?” 

Becky was on the ground resting while she waited for Charlotte to bring the truck around, it was tricky and maybe a little dangerous as she had to clear Iron Butte Ranch from a freaker horde so they could pick up the fertilizer so... a bunch of explosives and bullets later she found herself laying on the ground rifle on hand taking a breath after the fight she just had when some asshole decided to interrupt her temporary peace.

“Corbin, you son a bitch.” She said sitting up.

“Dude, there you are, you gotta listen...look I tried to stop them, I did. From shooting Hunter, I did not want it to go down like that dude...” 

“Captain, the Colonel wants to see you right away…” a voice interrupted him.

“Captain, didn’t take you long to lie your way into a promotion.” 

“This army crap is all bullshit, you know that. But dude you have to listen to me…”

“Don’t call me ‘dude’ Corbin.” The redhead snapped.

“Fair enough, just wanted you to know...when Stratus busted you out, the Colonel went batshit crazy, thought she was in on it, lost his mind and wanted to take LT. Bliss out, he was gonna kill her, Becks.” 

Becky closed her eyes, teeth grinding in anger.

“But I stopped him. I told him that all of that poison she’s been cooking up...maybe we use it to kill the freakers or may we don’t. Maybe there’s an enemy camp and maybe they have one water supply and maybe we dump a shit ton of Hemlock in there and maybe that clears a lot of our problems…”

“Corbin, you fucking son of a bitch.”

“Anyways… the Colonel likes that idea, so he makes me captain, he wants me to keep the entire camp safe. She reports to me now, Becks.” The redhead could hear and almost see the sickening grin Corbin must have on his face. “To me.”

“What do you want, Corbin?” She asked slowly.

“Dude, I just wanted to warn you… they are coming and I can’t stop them, this time the Colonel is bringing the entire house.

“Let him, Corbin. You and the entire ark can come and this time we’ll be ready.”

\------------------

“Hey Charlie...what?” Becky said, standing on the side of the truck by the drivers window where Charlotte was.

“You like it?” She said raising her arm. “I still can’t ride a bike but I can change the hell out of this gears.” she continued changing the gears. Looking proud at the new addition to her arm, this time instead of a knife it was a ice cream scoop, the round edge making it a perfect fit for the gear.

“Looks pretty good, Chuck!” 

“Holy shit, Becks! Looks like I missed all the fun!” The blonde turned in front of her to look at the amount of bodies around her. 

“Yeah, next time I drive the truck and you kill the freakers.” Becky said smiling. “Alright, Chucky Chuck, back it up.” 

After several hours they were able to get the fertilizer and creosote on the truck, the sun was going down. 

“Okay, so that’s everything, Sasha has the guys roundup ready to leave when we call.” The blonde nodded in affirmation starting up the truck .”Drive carefully.”

The comment made the blonde laugh loudly. “Come on, Becks. What do you think I’m going to blow myself up?”

“No! It’s just...are you okay to drive all the way dare with just one arm?”

“Bitch.”

Becky sighed shaking her head. “Look Charlie...we both know this is most likely a one way trip…”

“Yeah. Then I won’t have to drive back.” The blonde responded easily. “I’m all in, Becks. Always.” Becky smiled thankfully and nodded. “Also..” The blonde turned around to grab something from the passenger side. “Only bikers would pull a dumbass stunt like this.” She extended her arm which was holding Becky’s denim vest. 

They stared at each other for a few moments before Becky pulled the blonde in for a hug who returned it tightly. 

“Ok…” Becky sniffed pulling away. “Are we gonna do this or what?”


	19. Riding The Open World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is anybody still reading this? Sorry I took so long to update kinda lost inspiration there but this quarantine thing gave me no choice but continue my project.
> 
> Anyways this is the last chapter, again this is not proof read so apologies for any mistakes.
> 
> Enjoy!

Becky was holding onto the side of the truck while Charlotte drove towards the camp’s gate, as the gate got closer and closer the blonde look sideways quickly ate Becky and back to the gate, switching gears to speed up.

 

“Charlie, we gotta jump”! The redhead yelled through the window. 

 

The blonde girl kept driving and pressed harder on the accelerator, holding the wheel firmer.

 

“Hey! we gotta go.” yelled Becky again, this time getting closer to the window.

 

The blonde woman only smiled and looked at her briefly. “We only have one shot at this, Becks.” She said, switching gears. “And you gotta get your wife back.”

 

“Wha...No!” That was the last thing she yelled before being pushed off the truck, her body falling towards the lake below the the bridge as Charlotte pressed harder on the gas, bullets coming in from  the front as the guard spotted the truck coming in full force, Becky quickly gather her bearings and swam upwards, watching as the truck hit the front gate with a huge explosion following.

 

“Charlie!” She yelled desperately watching the explotion. “No.” She mumbled and then quickly started swimming towards the now open camp, fire and debris almost everywhere.

 

“Goddamn it, Charlie, why didn´t you jump?” She mumbled out of breath. “You should´ve jumped.”

 

She stays crouched gathering her breath and taking some time to grieve before anger starts overtaking her, anger at this fucked world, at this fucked up idea of military. She just so sick of this stupid idea of survival, she never thought she’d say this, but all she really wants is settle down with Alexa, whether that’s at Lost Lake Camp or at Cloverdale Lab, it didn’t matter she just wanted to stay in one place. 

 

“I’m gonna kill you all.” She says grinding her teeth and gathering her guns. “I’m gonna make sure every single one of you ends up dead.” 

 

She got her rifle ready and runs takes cover, she takes a deep breath and then comes out shooting the soldiers scattered around looking for survivors. It wasn’t a lot of them maybe 4 or 6, two of which she manages to dispose with her sniper rifle.

 

She shoots the guy in front of her and as he falls down she moves forward taking cover behind some debris. She crouches down and reloads her gun before going up and shooting the next two guys.

 

“Alexa, I gotta get to Lexi.” She tells herself, searching the fallen soldiers for ammo. Before taking cover again. “Oh you son of a bitch just let me go on my way Goddamn it!”

 

After the remaining soldiers are dead she starts cautiously making her way towards the cave entrance only to be blown back with a huge explosion. Becky lands on her back losing her breath, she stays there eyes opening a closing and groaning. Very faintly in the distance she can hear voice close by.

 

_ “It’s sealed! Get to the upped cave, move it!”  _

 

“Corbin…” She says coughing, turning so she could kneel on the ground, gathering her breath.  “Son of a bitch Corbin.” 

 

“Alright, top of the cone, gotta get there.” She makes gets up dusting herself off and she moves to the road on the side of the old volcano only to be received by bullets from more soldiers. 

 

“Oh, we are doing this the hard way aren’t we?” She says taking cover. “Fucking Corbin.”

 

Slowly and with some scratches but thankfully no bullet holes she makes her way up top, and manages to make her way inside the caves, and manages to deactivate a few of the bombs around the entrance. In here it was easier to dispose of the soldiers here sneakily as they were mostly on aware of the mess outside. Turns out Captain Corbin is actually pretty bad at his job.

 

She makes her way down to one of the labs where she finds Corbin threatening LT. Naomi…

 

“Come on Lt. Where is the Goddamn detonator?”  

 

“Fuck you, I ain’t letting keep us all here.” 

 

“We follow orders, that’s how it is. Where the fuck is it?!”

 

“Oh Corbin… you balding son of a bitch.” Becky whispers, from where she’s hiding she get her gun out shooting at Corbin from a distance, but only manages to graze him. However it’s enough for him to let go of Naomi and run away. 

 

“Don’t run away you coward!”

 

Making her way down she loads her rifle again ready to shoot at anything or anyone, she runs all while listening to Corbin’s taunts echoing through the cave.

 

“When you left, the colonel was angry, oh boy was he angry and guess who he took it out on huh?”

 

“Corbin, come out you fucking coward!” She yelled carefully making her way through the cave, around boxes of supplies along with weapons and other explosives.

 

“He broke her like a fucking egg, he cracked her like an egg!” 

 

“Fucking, Corbin, we end this now!”

 

“I agree.”

 

All of a sudden the darkness surrounding Becky lit up with flames as Corbin shoots a leaking gas barrel. Adjusting her eyes and ignoring the heat from the fire Becky could see Corbin in front of her pointing a rifle towards her. And it’s only by pure luck that she manages to duck just on time as his next and last bullet rings out.

 

Corbin continues to retreat; Becky continued advancing.

 

“Son of a bitch! I’m gonna kill you with my bare hands!” She yells before tackling him to the ground. However he had managed to push her off of him with a punch to her jaw. Corbin stands up and wastes no time in lunging forward as Becky is recovering, then jabbing out a knife in an attempt to stab her, but reflex kicked in and she ducked away stepping backwards. 

 

Corbin sprints again this time and Becky ducks again however Corbin notices this and only get away with a small bleeding slice on her arm. Just one more of injury for Bayley to fix when she goes back. Soon Corbin advances towards her again and she’s pressed up against the cave wall luckily she manages to block his attack with her arm, while punching him with her free hand. The sound of her fist hitting his face creating a rumbling echo through the cave.  He stood up but he was too slow and Becky stepped between his legs to trip him while shoving him directly to the ground.

 

Corbin fell harshly crashing against the ground his breath knocked out of him due to the impact all while Becky gets on top of him as she begins to deliver blow after blow. She wanted him to suffer. Panting and she stands up and pulls him to his feet, almost tearing the collar of his shirt, she could hear the slight rasp of material ripping just to kick him in the stomach making him fall to his knees. The blood dripping from his face onto the cold floor. Becky takes out her knife and kicks him once again.

 

“You know, Corbs. There was a time I would’ve dragged you out in to the shit.” She tells him panting, lowering to his level “Leave you out to the freaks, but I’m not gonna do that, because they would rip you limb by limb and you wouldn't enjoy it.” She presses the knife harder against his neck. “You just wouldn’t fucking enjoy it and I really want to kill you myself.”  And with the redhead slices his neck and watches as he gurgles for air as blood drips out if his neck.

 

“Fucking, Corbin.” She pants, wiping her knife on her pants.

 

\------------------------------------

 

“I don’t know… when or why… but I uh, I… I saw something.”

 

Alexa was sitting quietly and nervously with the Colonel in his chambers. The Colonel sat on the head of the table with Alexa on the right side. His was looking straight in front of him at nothing. On the table sat a teapot and a tea cup filled with fresh tea that Alexa had brewed for his as she usually did.  His right hand holding a fully loaded gun gripped tightly as he spoke.

 

“A...a month ago maybe. I… I felt something.Something I hadn’t felt in a long time, and, and I know that a lot of you might have felt the same way and I think if we just…”

 

His eyes move from the spot on the wall to his left where Becky makes her way through slowly with her rifle pointing at him. Alexa feels her heart tighten at the sight of her both in relief and worry. Relief because her wife was okay, she was alive. Worry because she was walking into a room with the craziest, most unstable man she has ever met, not to mention the five guards pointing a gun at her.

 

“Becky.”  Her name comes out of the blonde’s mouth before she can stop herself, her body sitting up straighter on the chair.

 

“I’ll have your side arm.” The Colonel tells Becky calmly, His right hand moving to point his gun at the blonde. 

 

Tightening her jaw she throws her rifle away as she realizes she has no other options, cautiously she makes her way to the table when the Colonel asks her to sit. She slowly sits down and subtly nods at her wife as she could see her asking with her gaze if she was alright. 

 

“Let’em go, Colonel. It’s all over.” She tells him, her gaze not leaving the blondes.

 

“Would you like some tea?” He asks her making her turn to look at him with a frown. “I’m sure you would. Lexi could you please pour the drifter a cup of tea.”

 

Becky looks down at she adjust slightly on the chair. 

 

“The arch was our… our only hope. You realize that of course.”

 

The Colonel talks and Alexa reaches forward to pour the tea as the Colonel takes a sip of his. When Becky looks at her she subtly shakes her head signaling her to not drink the tea. Alexa realized soon enough that the Colonel’s trust in her was going to be his downfall. Her buttering up to him was enough to have him believe she was on his side and that she got caught up in all feelings but that was it, she learned her lesson and she “belonged” in the ark.

 

She “believed” in the cause. It also helped half the soldiers here had no idea about what plants were poisonous or not.

 

“When the world was cleansed, it was the only thing that would allow us to rebuild. Everything was here protected, saved by the grace of God.”

 

Becky hesitantly grabs the cup to pull it closer to her but makes no move to drink from it. The blonde looks down refusing to look at the Colonel as he chuckles.

 

“We never did find someone to play the piano though, did we?” He says amused. His expression quickly changing to a more somber one. “When all this is gone, there’ll be nobody left to hear the music.”  He pauses and takes another sip of his tea.

 

“You destroyed us.” He then says. “You destroyed everything we worked for.”

 

Becky sighs. “No Colonel. You did. When you started this holy war. You know given the choice between you and the freaks… I’m gonna have to go with them. Because at least when they kill, they’re just looking for a meal”  She turns to him and leans slightly forward,  gripping her cup tighter. “They don’t kill unarmed people.”

 

“Why you…” The Colonel stops talking, his mouth opening and closing as if trying to find some air, his eyes red. Everyone in the room watching as the life in his eyes fades way to nothing. And is only when his body falls forward on the table, the view making the soldiers in the room run away to be free of the lunatics idea, that Becky releases a breath and a wince from the amount of pain her body is in. 

 

After kicking the gun away from him and making sure the Colonel was dead she stands up and walks around the table to where Becky was standing. 

 

“You came back.” She says, one of her hands on her chest and the other softly caressing her jaw right where she was punched. 

 

“Of course I did. I always will.” 

 

Together and keeping their hands together they make their way out of the cave. The blonde looks around at the destruction from the blowed up doors and the bullet rain that transpired no so long ago. SHe could see some of  Lost Lake camp soldiers pointing their guns at the few soldiers who were actually loyal to the Colonel. She could see other’s helping the injured or carrying supplies.

 

“Where’s Charlotte?”

 

Becky sighs and looks down. “She’s gone.” 

 

“Becks…” The blonde mumbles, she holds her hands tighter and she can see her struggling to keep it together, not wanting to fall down out in the open. “Hey, why don’t you go get some water, I’ll help set a medical tent okay?”

 

Not saying a word the redhead nods and presses a quick kiss to the blonde’s forehead as a thanks.  It’s not long before she manages to find some space from everyone but her peace is interrupted when she hears her name called out.

 

“Becks!”

 

“Sash!” 

 

“So it’s really over huh?” Sasha says as soon as she’s close enough. “Everyone that wasn’t killed or wounded by the blast pretty much gave up.” She got closer when she noticed the solemn look on Becky’s eyes. “Where’s Charlotte?” She asked, the solemn look in the redhead’s eyes duplicating on her own at the silent response of her friend.  “Shit.”

 

Sasha was like Becky in some ways, both needed their own time when dealing with the heavy shit. They needed time to process things in their own way, let them out and then talk about them. So Sasha understood and as much as she wanted to say something she knew Becky needed her space. So she nodded and quietly told her she had to go help Bailey with the injured.

 

Becky nodded with a look that said ‘Thank you’ not just for giving her her space, but also for helping her with this crazy plan of hers. Sighing she turns around and continues to walk to a more secluded part of the camp. Her head down, the ache in her muscles and fatigue making themselves known now that the adrenaline was going down. 

 

She paced back and forth slowly, she was crying, she wasn’t angry either, right now she was just feeling. Because the thought of losing her best friend, the one person who had been there since the beginning of the freaker clusterfuck was gone. She sacrificed herself but the cause, all because Becky needed her wife back. 

 

“Fucking, Chuky Chuck.” 

 

“Sorry, I’m late.”

 

Becky snaps her head up and turns around so fast she knows her muscles will complain even more tomorrow. “No.” She gasped shaking her head.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“No.” She repeated, because no, there was just no way her blonde boulder of a best friend is making her way to her right now.

 

“No, no, no, no…”

“I jumped.”

 

“No… what the fuck… you were…”

 

“Just before I ran outta bridge...yeah.”

 

“I saw the truck...” Becky walked closer just like Charlotte did, both speaking at the same time and gesturing with their arms.

 

“No, no, no I felt the blast wave even under ten feet of water now that was a ride.”

 

Becky chuckled before launching herself at her friend who of course caught her with welcoming arms. “Of course you did, you crazy blonde boulder.” 

 

“I’m mean you didn’t think I’d blew myself up did ya?”

 

“Pfft.. pfttt… of course not.”  The redhead said pulling away, looking at her friend up and down still not believing she was here.

 

“Then who’d be around to annoy the hell out of you?” The blonde smirked at her, and just like Becky she looked at her shorter friend up and down as if making sure she was there, as if trying to come to terms with the fact that her crazy plan worked. Both girls looked the same, bloody, with scraps and cuts everywhere. Not to mention they both probably achy as hell from almost being blown up. But at the end day they were both alive, still supporting one another.

 

“I would.” Another voice said behind Becky. And from the way her eyes lit up, Charlotte needed no clues to know who it was. 

 

The blonde’s smile got bigger and a happy chuckle came out of her mouth when, just like her wife, the smaller blonde launcher herself at her. “Lexi.You are alive.”

 

“So are you.” She tells her, when she pulls away. The smile on all three girls face was way to big to be hidden now. 

 

“I hear someone’s been looking for you.” The blonde says with a teasing look.

 

The blonde looks behind her and wastes no time in grabbing Becky by the hand to pull her closer to her. Honestly they had been apart for so long she wanted to glue their hands together so they could never be separated again. 

 

“Well… I..It was really, more her idea than it…”

 

“Wouldn’t shut up about it.”

 

It was moments like this that remind Alexa of their previous life. Moments of Charlotte teasing Becky about how the redhead wouldn’t shut up about her. About how she someone always had to bring her up in one way or another. Moments like this that remind Alexa that despite the world going to shit,despite having to do unspeakable things to survive, her wife still had some of that dorky side of her and she was thankful for it. 

 

She was thankful that she had someone like Charlotte beside her all this time, because she know she’s the one who helped her keep some of old self in her. Much like Becky had helped her make her feel like herself again when she came back.

 

“We both know when it comes to me you can never shut up.” Alexa teases her as well, this time pulling Becky’s arm around her as she wraps her arms around her waist. 

 

“Yeah, well… I love you I guess.”

 

\--------------------------------

 

The night goes by and everyone around the camp keeps on working through it, cleaning up the mess, separating the good supplies from the useless ones, helping the injured, burning the bodies. Becky had to be forced to rest as she wanted to help around the camp, she owned it to them. But her wife being her wife… well. What is it they say happy wife happy life? So if Alexa wanted Becky to rest to be happy, then Becky would gladly do it.

 

It isn’t until the sun starts rising from behind the mountains that everyone gathers around a big bonfire and Naomi gives Becky the last flag of the Colonel camp so she could throw it into the fire, a metaphorical way of closing this chapter once and for all.

 

“I’m sorry you have to say to rebuild.” The redhead tells her as she takes the flag from her hands.

 

Naomi shrugs. “Not all of the Colonel ideas were bad. Just the batshit crazy ones.”

 

“You’re are the second person to tell me that.” 

 

“Who else? Stratus? You know what not sure how I feel about her she left us here to rot.” 

 

“Hey, if it wasn’t for her we’d all be dead.” 

 

“I guess. And I think we’ll try this again without all the army man bullshit.”

 

Becky throws her a smile. “Well if anyone can do it, is you.” She pats her on the back and walks away to where Charlotte was, next to the fire.

 

“Chucky.”

 

The blonde throws her a proud smile. “We did it. You did it.”

“Yeah… well I gotta…” She nods towards the campers waiting for her speech. 

 

“Finn would be proud.” The blonde tells her honestly and Becky can only nod and mutter a small thank you.

 

The redhead walks up the small stage where the Colonel use to give his daily speeches, Alexa was waiting for her and as soon as the red head was close to her, her hand went directly to hold the others.

 

“I’ve never seen you give a speech before.” 

 

“Uh… it’s not a speech… it’s more of uh… whoa, ma’am.” 

 

Alexa frowns at the term, did they not have this conversation already? She doesn't want to be cal… oh. Becky points at her arm where the LT. arm band was still wrapped around her jacket sleeve.  “Enough of that shit.” She says pulling it away and throwing into the fire.

 

“What does it mean when they all get quiet.” Becky whispered when all the muttering around the campers stopped.

 

“That’s means that’s your cue to talk.”

 

“Well, shit.”

 

Taking a deep a breath and with one last squeeze to Alexa’s hand she starts heads down the platform to walk around the  fire, around the people, the people who helped her.

 

“Look, I’m not a leader.” She starts, a few ‘yeah, rights’ and ‘yes, you ares’ thrown her way, an amused look on Sasha’s face. “I don’t care what you say, I’m not.” She says again this time more directed at her friend. “But, um, you’ve done something here today, we’ve done something.” She paused looking around the camp. “We gathered around to fight. Not because some asshole told us to. But because it was the right thing to do and you know what? We won!” 

 

She paused, letting the people cheer and celebrate their win before it quieted down again so she could continue. “I’ve seen you struggle. To rebuild. I’ve seen you fight to save lives. To keep people safe, keep people fed. I’ve seen you sacrifice everything you have, everything that you are. To make the world a better place.”  She continues walking.looking at everyone around her.  “And that’s why we are still here. Because if we don’t have hope, for a better lie or for a future that matters? The hell are we fighting for.”

 

“You know Hunter… he once said to me that, that we make the world what is by what we do.” She stops walking and she stand in front of the fire, taking the flag with both hands. “So what did we do? What are going to do? See this?” The redhead spreads her arms so she could show the flag to everyone before scrunching it up and throwing it into the fire. “This is the first step.”

Everyone around her cheers again, hugging each other throwing their own things into the fire as well. Becky smiles around her and it only get bigger when she feels a hand hold hers. 

 

“I thought it wasn’t a speech.” Alexa says with amusement.

 

“Yeah.. well I screwed up what else is new.” The redhead shrugged. “How was it.”

 

Alexa smiles coyly her hands going up to play with the collar of Becky’s jacket. “Oh you know, it was… it was alright. For an outlaw biker.”

 

“An outlaw biker huh?” Becky smirks her hand on Alexa’s waist, pulling her closer. “Are you ready to ride, wife of mine?”

 

“Ride huh? Where are we going?” She asked their lips almost touching.

 

“Wherever the hell we want.”

**Author's Note:**

> So what do we think? do we like it? do we hate it? Please do leave a comment if you are interested on reading more. Kudos are welcome too.


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